Grim Adventures: The Thousand-Year Door
by TMan5636
Summary: When the Endsville kids accidentally cross dimensions, they're now trapped in the Mushroom Kingdom. With nowhere else to go, they choose to help a certain red clad plumber find the Crystal Stars and unlock the mysteries behind the Thousand-Year Door. Rated K for possible violence.
1. 0-1:Missing Ruby

Three years had passed since the finale, and Billy and Mandy were in their first year of Middle School, so far not much had changed. Grim was still their slave, same kids, same weird supernatural activities and as always, same Endsville. The only thing that has changed is that Billy and Mandy are eleven years old now, and they have a new school and teachers.

It was a particular boring day. As boring as it can get on a school day anyway, we find Billy and Mandy confronted with their teacher. A bald man with a large grey moustache wearing a white t-shirt and blue jeans. He had a very stern, strict look to him. Unlike Miss Butterbean who was uncaring and quite lazy, he got the job done well and kept other students from misbehaving efficiently.

Billy looked from left to right looking at the other students, ignoring the pop-quiz given to him. Mandy was looking at some articles she smuggled into class, she had finished her pop-quiz easily; Irwin had also finished his pop-quiz easily and he was staring straight ahead with his hands together, though when he thought people weren't looking, he turned to some papers to draw many pictures of him and Mandy being romantic.

Mindy was ignoring hers as she was sorting out her makeup, Sperg ate his and Pud'n and Nergal Junior were working on theirs but were having trouble, the same as the other students in the classroom. Billy soon turned his attention to his pop-quiz, which only had a few random doodles of pirate clowns with flamethrowers and cats on limousines driven by robot frogs.

The article Mandy was looking at specifically was of yesterday's big news. "Danville Museum's Rare Ruby has been stolen."

Danville was a city quite far from here, one that she wasn't familiar with, all she knew was that it was a place known for spending their summer vacation to the limit. But this ruby was what got her attention more.

Dubbed the Cyclops Ruby, it was an extremely rare brilliant gem stone with a golden sphere inside of it, the sphere itself had a thin line inside it that made it look like a snake eye, because of its unique design and was supposedly centuries years old, it's been marked as over several quadrillion dollars in value, one small gemstone that has fifteen zeroes in it. It could turn the poorest to the richest in mere seconds. And now it was out of its safe haven and somewhere out there for grabs.

With a gemstone that valuable, she could buy anything she would want, including rights to every country if possible, while Mandy was president at one point, standards and regulations changed forcing her to retire quickly, which was annoying, but she didn't care enough to fight back, while it would be nice to rule the world like she had planned back then, she hasn't focused much on it nowadays due to focusing more on her education. But every time the Ruby comes into question, she keeps imagining herself with it and using it to buy most of not all the world.

She dove from her thoughts as the teacher soon stood up and faced the classroom with a serious gruff look on his face. "Alright students… as you know, tomorrow is the school trip. All of you must be at the school at 6:30 sharp"

Pud'n raised his hand. "AM or PM?"

"AM."

All the students looked shocked with an annoyed expression, same went for Mandy who kept the same evil look all day until now. "Hey, don't go complaining to me! It's not my idea to take you and two more classes to a camping trip. But look… you have to arrive at 6:30AM sharp, and bring enough clothes for two weeks, and some food if you feel like bringing some, we will have enough food for you there to last for a month either way… and once you get there, tell the teachers and staff about anything you might be allergic too, we don't want another accident. Class dismissed."

With that, the students packed their books and equipment, put them into their bags and made their way for the door. Billy, Mandy and Irwin got into their usual line of three as they made their way back to their street.

"6:30AM… why so early?" moaned Billy.

"Maybe it's to have us experience the fun of long field trips." Said Irwin trying to sound optimistic.

"How can I do that when I'm asleep?"

Mandy chose to ignore Billy's complaining and Irwin's annoying chattering. She let out a quiet sigh, she had forgotten about the trip, now if the Ruby ends up in Endsville, she may miss her chance unless she's lucky enough for it to arrive to her. Nevertheless, she suspected that all of America will be at an uproar trying to find the Cyclops Ruby before anyone else.

* * *

Billy and Mandy were walking home not long after Irwin left the group to his own house, Mandy still thought about the Ruby, but not as much since she was forced to listen to Billy's annoying rambles, changing subjects almost instantaneously, but she was thankful when she noticed her house, so she began to walk faster, and at that point, Billy drifted from her to head to his own house.

"See ya tomorrow Mandy."

"Yeah, see ya." Mandy responded in a bored tone.

About thirty minutes had passed and Mandy had been doing the same thing, she had been lying on her couch while changing channels, but she had been focusing on the news reports specifically, and no matter which one she flicked to, it was the same thing, reports on almost everyone trying to find the Cyclops Ruby.

But from the collection of reports she listened to, she learned that not only are they unable to detect it with their best technology, but the thief is still completely unknown, left no trace, eluded all cameras and made no sound, no witnesses by man or machine. Might as well be a super ninja.

At that point, Grim came in and sat down on the far end of the couch, he let out a small smirk as he looked at the TV. "Dey still looking fer that ting?" Grim asked in his strong Jamaican accent.

"Yep." Mandy replied.

"Tch, humans. I always said they would drive demselves to extinction, now dat dis limitless cash is out there, tis only a matter of time before we see a big war somewhere. And I'll be dere to take all their souls to the afterlife." Grim proceeded to rub his chin. "Although come to tink of it, it looks kinda familiar."

"I'm assuming you've done all my chores if you're here, right?"

Grim shrugged. "Yeah, of course."

"Fine, in any case, Billy and I are going on a trip tomorrow for two weeks. And you're coming with me."

"Hmph." Grim responded. "I suppose I get no say in dis?"

"You guessed it. I'm not staying in some old dusty village for two weeks without your scythe to make things more interesting. Besides, you could use your magic to help locate that Ruby."

"Knew it." Grim sighed before standing up Grim stood up. "Whatever, in any case, I need to do a few rounds of reaping before I call it a day. I'll catch you later."

With that, Grim disappeared in a flash of black light. Mandy turned to the TV again and continued to watch the news fly by. A picture of the Cyclops Ruby soon showed itself on the screen, a red brilliant cut gemstone with a yellow sphere inside of it. The moment it shown itself, Mandy imagined herself looking down onto a world that worshiped her and everything about her, with a mountain of limitless money behind her. A small smile developed on her face.


	2. 0-2:Guest Star

It was 6:15AM the next day. Everyone had arrived, but looked really tired which wasn't too surprising, all except Mandy who had an early night sleep. We find Billy, Mandy, Grim and Irwin waiting at the bus stop, not far from them was Mindy, Sperg, Pud'n and Junior.

Billy quickly walked to the four. "So, what are you gonna do?" he said with a stupid grin slapped across his face.

Junior shrugged his shoulders. "Whatever we can do at a village I suppose."

Pud'n flinched. "Probably avoid all the bugs and smelly strangers like I did last time."

"Make every kid eat dirt!" Sperg then pointed to Billy. "Starting with you, big nose!"

"That's none of your business loser!" scoffed Mindy as she rolled her eyes.

With that, Billy made his way back to Mandy and Irwin. "We're gonna have fun!"

"Yeah right." Said Mandy sarcastically.

"I know! Isn't it gonna be fun?" said the excited Irwin, oblivious to Mandy's sarcasm. He then leaned closer to her. "Best part is that you and I can get some alone time." He said trying to sound seductive but came out sounding nerdy. Mandy responded by punching Irwin in the stomach making him fall onto his knees.

After about fifteen minutes, the bus arrived, and all the students walked into it and got onto their chosen seats. Billy and Mandy sat next to each other, Irwin and Junior were behind Billy and Mandy, Sperg sat next to Pud'n on the opposite side, Mindy sat with another popular girl at the far back and Grim sat on his own near the middle. After a few minutes of safety instructions which no one listened to except for the nerds, the bus began to drive off. 

Billy constantly talked to everyone he was near, Mandy just looked out the window ignoring Billy, Irwin was playing with his calculator, Mindy was fixing her makeup, Sperg was flexing his muscles, Pud'n was eating a chocolate bar, Junior played on a portable console and Grim was taking a nap. Every other student was either talking, playing on electronic devices or eating snacks.

But surprisingly, the bus had stopped. This confused everyone, they were not expecting a sudden stop at another bus station, it was scheduled to only stop at two service stations and this was neither of them. It was at that point, the door opened and there a fresh new face entered the bus.

It was a boy with a triangular shaped head, red spiky hair, blue eyes, he wore a yellow and orange striped t-shirt, denim shorts and a pair of dark blue and white shoes with long bright blue socks. He carried a green backpack behind him.

"Alright class." Said the Principal as he stood up and faced the students. "I forgot to mention this, but we are having an exchange student for this trip, I understand it's a little bit odd to have an exchange student for a fieldtrip, but we figured it would be a good idea to try something new."

The principal then placed his hand near the boy. "And coming from Danville... this is our exchange student, Phineas Flynn."

"Hi there." the boy named Phineas responded, with a few hellos here and there.

' _Danville!?_ ' Thought Mandy with slight intrigue. ' _That's the town the Ruby was stolen from._ ' She looked at the boy who walked further along the bus.

Phineas noticed that the only seat available was next to Grim, who had woken up a few minutes ago. "Uh, hi." Phineas said looking a little surprised.

"Hey." Grim replied as he moved onto the next seat to let Phineas in.

"Can't say I see a tall talking skeleton every day." Phineas said as he sat next to him.

"Always a first time fer everything. Names Grim"

"Nice to meet you."

The bus ride continued once again, and everyone went back to their usual antics, only this time, Grim kept up his conversation with the new boy. Mandy herself, looked on at Phineas, since he was from the town the Cyclops Ruby was stolen, she wondered if he knew anything about it, she sighed doubting it and went back to looking out the window.

About an hour passed and everything felt the same, only this time Grim had laughed a few times, his conversation with Phineas had changed from small talk to pretty much becoming good friends having a great time.

"Did she seriously do dat!?" Asked Grim with an amused look on him.

"Yeah, we seriously didn't expect Candace to be scared of snakes, the moment she saw the toy in the bathtub, she immediately shrieked and jumped out the window, if it wasn't for that large Bouncy City we had set up before hand, she would've gotten hurt. But the look on her face was priceless."

"Man, ya got one heck of a life. Was she mad?"

"Mad doesn't even describe it!" Phineas replied. "She looked as if she was going to explode into flames of anger. It was only meant to be a light-hearted prank, but man was I bruising."

"Did she actually beat you up?"

"Not really, she just crushed my nose again, Ferb managed to get away in time, he didn't need to outrun her, just me. But I had so much trouble breathing out of my nose for a solid week."

"Hey, be tankful it wasn't Mandy ya pranked, she would've fed ya to the dogs."

Mandy herself looked on over to Grim and Phineas, she then rolled her eyes at how pathetic they were.

"Boy, Grim's sure getting along with the new kid. Better than us." said Billy.

"Meh, if he annoys me he'll be the last friend Grim has."

After about two hours on a bus, it finally stopped at a place called Wrail Village. A very old looking village that had a lot of train-themed locals and names.

All the students slowly made their way out of the bus, where they saw their classroom teacher, along with three more teachers, the Principal and finally a sweet old woman. "Welcome to Wrail Village! Here, we take great pride in our rail services across the state. I hope you enjoy yourself for the next two weeks. My name is Amelia. Shall we escort you to the small camp?"

Later, we find the kids outside a bunch of log cabins in a large campsite just behind the village, the insides had smooth wooden floorboards, soft beds, polished windows, each with a small plant pot and one or two air fresheners, each cabin had about ten bunk-beds, meaning twenty kids for each cabin, more than enough room. Mandy felt as if she could live here, she did have a small guilty pleasure of log cabins, but she wasn't sure why.

"I trust you'll find these rooms and beds to be to your liking." said Amelia "Now allow me to show you around the village!"

As the kids began to follow the old woman and teachers back to the village, Mandy felt a strange sensation, she looked around, seeing the trees, the buildings, the mild weather and the sky. For some reason, she was feeling a dreadful sense of déjà vu, but why?


	3. 0-3:Wrail Village Tour

The students had found themselves in the south-west sector of Wrail Village. The town started in the late 1900's, built around several rail tracks, the idea was to act as a checkpoint to several trains passing through, that way the town would receive resources from several other towns. Mandy leaned over the metal fence and looked down to see the train tracks going under the bridge she and the other kids stood on as they walked behind the three teachers, the Principal and Amelia, the tracks looked old and rusted, as the town grew bigger and the railways expanded both around and away from here, trains slowly stopped arriving here. Mandy remembers the day her parents claimed to have first arrived in Endsville by taking the very last train from Wrail Village over twenty years ago, no train has come since. Mandy moved off of the fence and continued to walk with the rest of the students, as she looked behind her at the bridge, she couldn't help but feel a strange sense of déjà vu coming from the rails below, she suspected it was because her parents came from here, but shrugged it off, she wasn't born yet so it wouldn't make sense to her.

The students continued their tour around the town but was restricted as they had to stay with the teachers, Mandy simply sighs in annoyance, she hated staying in crowds, especially crowds filled with people she considered idiots, she typically thought everyone she knew was an idiot. She then noticed Billy talking with the new kid Phineas, who seemed to have been getting along with him just as fine as Grim did, unsurprisingly since she knew Billy was an idiot who thinks he can make friends with everyone.

Soon Billy got close to her after finishing with Phineas. "Trains are awesome aren't they Mandy?" asked Billy with his excited tone as usual.

"Not in the slightest" said Mandy "They're uncomfortable, they rock everywhere, the food service sucks, and they're expensive!"

"Yep! Trains are awesome!" said Billy, not getting what Mandy said.

Mandy sighs as she rolled her eyes at Billy's stupidity "Yes… trains are awesome" she said sarcastically, finding it easier to agree with Billy rather than explain everything.

"I dunno." said Phineas who turned to Mandy. They spoke a couple times but that was it. "I think train rides can be fun if you use your imaginations. Me personally, I just appreciate the large amounts of machines that were built solely to make them move and carry gigantic carts that weighed several tones, such machinery seems to go unnoticed nowadays.

Mandy remained silent, not caring about what he had to say, but soon, Junior came up and spoke up. "So, are you a huge train enthusiast?"

"Not just trains." Phineas replied. "I'm just a huge technology nerd in general, my brother Ferb and I build all kinds of things from big to small, complex to simple. So, it's easy to say that I can appreciate hard work into old but advance technology."

"Heh, I like this kid." Grim responded. "Gotta love the classics."

Mandy simply rolled her eyes. "Get a room" she said.

* * *

Soon the students arrived at one of the museums, all of them were about trains, but each one did have some differences here and there, not that Mandy cared in the slightest. It was soon that Irwin crept up beside her and took her left hand. "Hello my dear, won't you choo choo choose me as your boyfriend?"

Mandy replied by grabbing Irwin's arm and throwing him over her shoulder slamming him onto his back hard. This got the attention of both Mindy and Sperg who walked up to her. "You REALLY don't get it, do you?"

"Nice one!" said Sperg as he stuck his two thumbs up, complimenting her hurting Irwin.

"Now do ya see what I meant by not de nicest girl?" Grim asked Phineas, who gave a small nod.

"You know Mandy, you should really consider his proposal" said Mindy looking smug as she walked up to her "After all, he's probably the only person on this planet who even remotely likes you! It's not like you'll get a proper boyfriend anyway."

"And what makes you think I want a boyfriend?" asked Mandy as she crossed her arms "Love is nothing more than a pointless emotion that makes people do stupid things for no reason."

"Isabella would like a few words with her." Phineas mumbled.

"You might think that, but don't you think it would be nice to have more than just that loser Irwin liking you?" asked Mindy as she leaned forward "If you're lucky enough, you might have some bum in the street like you a little, but not much."

"Bum in the street?" asked Mandy "Funny, sounds like your future. And I personally don't care about what people think of me. Now leave, both you and Sperg, and if either of you get close to me again, you'll live to regret it." she then looks over to Irwin who was still on the ground "That includes you!"

"Whatever, later loser!" said Mindy as she, Sperg and Irwin walk off, Irwin seemed the most upset.

"I should really think of a way to get rid of them permanently." mumbled Mandy, she then looked over to Billy who began to walk up to her. She then looked back to Phineas who turned away from her.

"Hey Mandy, this place is super cool, they have all kinds of trains!" said Billy forcing Mandy's attention on her.

"So, what? It is a stupid train museum after all." said Mandy as she looked away from him. She looked over to Billy's stupid face again seeing the big grin slapped across his face, she wasn't in the mood to speak to him again, so she pointed towards a nearby door to another room and thought fast. "That room over there has super trains in it."

"Awesome!" shouted Billy as he ran towards that new room. Mandy sighed with slight relief, she was far from the crowd and finally had some peace and quiet, but she turned to Phineas once again, and decided to walk up to him, surprising him slightly. She figured it was at least worth asking him about something.

"Uh, hey Mandy?" said Phineas.

"I heard from the news that the Cyclopes Ruby got stolen from Danville. Several quadrillion dollars it's worth."

"Oh that..." Phineas sighed a little. "It really stinks, my family were going to go see it the day before it got stolen. The idea of a golden sphere just in a red jewel felt fascinating. I mean, who put it in there and why... and how?"

"So, you know nothing of it?"

"Why would I?" Asked Phineas as he shrugged with a faint smirk. "All I knew was that it was super rare and expensive, I was going to find out more about it until it upped a left."

"Hm, yeah." Mandy shrugged herself. "I guess some little twerp like you wouldn't know anything about it."

"Twerp? Well… yeah, I just know how to build and fix. Oh, and I also do a few musicals."

"Whatever."

* * *

The trip had continued for a little while longer, but eventually they were all sent back to their cabins as the sun was starting to set.

Mandy got one of the top bunks she would share with Billy. She was working on a few things on her laptop while occasionally looking down at the noise the others were making. This noise was a series of musicals Billy and Phineas were putting on.

The two of them sang and danced in perfect sync between an empty frame standing in between them acting like a mirror.

"The reflection tells a story of a pirate's life before me! Trust yer eye! Argh! The mirror never lies!" Both Phineas and Billy sang.

Mandy hated music, and she hated them, but one thing she couldn't deny, Phineas had a great signing voice. And the pair of them were the centre of attention.

"Argh! The mirror never lies!" As they finished, both bowed to the cheering students and Grim.

"Gotta hand it to you." said Mindy with a small smile as she walked up to Phineas. "You're not half the loser I thought you were."

"Um… thanks?" Phineas replied feeling a bit unsure about her.

"Maybe tomorrow, the two of us could sneak away from the trip and have a little date?"

Phineas blushed a bit feeling shocked by her proposal. "W-What?"

"Aww! Someone's blushing!" Said Billy in a joking manner. "Got a crush?"

"N-Now wait! I-I already have a girlfriend!"

Mindy looked quite surprised. "You do?" Then she smirked. "Are you already enjoying my company?"

"N-No I'm serious!" Phineas quickly went to his green bag and took out a small photo. He then showed it to the crowd. "See?" The photo was of himself with a girl, both of them had their arms over each other's shoulders. This girl had long black hair, a pink bow, she wore a pink vest over a white t-shirt and a pink skirt. "Her name's Isabella."

Sperg chuckled "Wow! She's way prettier than you'll ever be Mindy." Sperg was then swiftly punched in the face by Mindy sending her to the ground.

"No one is as pretty as me."

"I dunno." Junior responded. "I'd say she's way prettier, and she seems a lot nicer too." He then got punched by Mindy too.

"Hey, what's in this box?" asked Billy as he took out a box made of lead from Phineas' bag. It had seven different types of locks on it as well as three combinations.

Phineas looked shocked as he quickly ran to him and took it off him. "I-It's a secret!"

Mandy suddenly took interest in the conversation, she too became curious about what was in the box. Especially with how defensive Phineas had gotten.

"Oh, I like secrets." Billy responded. "C'mon, you can tell us."

"I'd rather not."

"I bet it's something his girlfriend gave him." Grim spoke up as he lied back down on the bed he sat on.

"It's… Y-Yeah… it's something like that." Phineas said looking a bit nervous as he placed it back in his bag. "Look, I'm cool with being all your friends, but I'd appreciate it if you please let me keep my privacy."

"Well what about this?" asked Billy as he took out what looked like a long blue coloured gun with a baseball glove on the end, and a baseball stuck in front of it.

"That's my baseball launcher." Phineas said going back to his cheerful self as he gently took it off him. "It launches the baseball and it can control it wirelessly. Taking the ball back to its owner before it falls into a lake or goes too far. Watch."

Phineas aimed at the other side of the room and launched it at a high-speed surprising everyone, but before it hit the window, it stopped instantly and flew back to the glove and reattached itself. "What do you think?"

Billy gently took the Launcher and examined it. "Wow, that's super cool!" However, he accidentally pulled the trigger and the ball launched to the side hitting Irwin in the crotch. He wailed out in pain as the other students laughed except Billy who looked a bit shocked, and Phineas who quickly grabbed the Launcher back, returned the ball and put it back in his bag.

Mandy saw the Launcher in action, and actually felt a little impressed by the technology and how it hurt Irwin, but she looked down and could see the lead box in Phineas' bag. She began to suspect what could be in that box, but seeing how innocent and naïve Phineas looked, she had doubts on what it could be.


	4. 0-4:Demon Train

It was the next day and we find the students all exploring yet another train museum in a different part of town. Mandy herself was the only one annoyed by this, they had already been to one train museum, why another?

We find her at the back of the crowd with Grim, ignoring the curators talking about the exhibits, but she did take notice of Billy and Junior chatting, Irwin being super focused on what the curators were saying, Mindy was once again doing her makeup, but was texting at the same time, Sperg was completely zoned out as he was picking his nose and Pud'n simply lost focus and was concentrating on a small comic book he smuggled in, which he chewed on a couple times.

Mandy did another look around and noticed that Phineas was actually nowhere in sight, this felt odd considering how much of a social nerd he was, he didn't seem like the type to simply wander off. Mandy simply shrugged her shoulders, ignoring the naïve annoying twerp.

"Ok class" said the Principal. "Now we'll be heading to the next room, now it is quite small, so it will be cramped, so I don't want any pushing or arguing."

 _"Right, screw this, I'm out!"_ thought Mandy. Once the teachers were looking away, she immediately turned the other way and out of the door, ignoring Grim who looked at her weirdly before shrugging his shoulders. Little did she know however was that Pud'n and Junior had noticed Mandy leaving, the two looked at each other and decided to secretly follow her.

"I wonder what's with her today?" asked Junior.

"Not sure but remember to keep a safe distance." said Pud'n

* * *

Mandy sat on a bench at one of the train stations, the same one under the bridge she looked down on earlier. The strong silence and loneliness of this area was what Mandy liked about this place, she always loved moments of peace and quiet. Pud'n and Junior watched her from the bridge above in silence.

Mandy opened her eyes and leaned forward to look at the rails which stretched as far as she could see. The strange feeling still lingered around her, only in this specific area, no other place having train tracks do this to her. She simply assumed this was because her parents took the last train to arrive here, but she never knew why it would affect her, she wasn't born then, she never cared for her parents or their past, all she's ever cared about was herself, other people were just tools to her.

She leans back to relax a bit more feeling annoyed by this sensation she gets here, while it was annoying, it also felt peaceful, almost like it was the only place for her to get some peace and quiet and the price was this weird sensation. She tipped her head up and sighed, only to see the heads of Pud'n and Junior who quickly moved away hoping to have not been spotted. But they were.

Mandy gave off an irritated sigh, she wanted to be alone but that seemed impossible while she was with the school full of idiots "Fine, I'll just get Grim to take me home." She dug into the back pocket of her dress and took out a purple and black cell phone and opened it up, she then pressed a button showing a skull image. Within seconds a puff of black smoke appeared and there Grim appeared almost instantly.

"What do ya want child?" asked Grim after he let out an irritated sigh.

"Take me home" demanded Mandy "I'm sick of this trip and I'm sick of not getting any privacy."

"Surely the teachers will not be happy with dis." said Grim.

"Like I care what those morons have to think with what little brain cells they have." said Mandy.

"And your parents?" asked Grim.

"You know this you idiot. They're terrified of me, they'll leave me alone. Now get that stupid scythe of yours ready and take me home."

Grim gave off another irritated sigh "Very well." Grim soon makes his scythe appear and prepares to open a portal, but that was until a faint sound got their attention.

It sounded exactly like the horn of a train. Mandy looked to the rails and stepped forward to them to see if there really was a train coming "Trains haven't even come to this area for twenty years, why now?" Mandy looks to the right to see nothing, but once she looked left, there she saw something which surprised her.

Coming along the rails was a gigantic steam train, so large its wheels took up both of the tracks. On the front were two giant drills, the window at the front looked like evil eyes, the funnel shot traces of blue fire, it held five giant carriages and it stormed forward with loud 'chugging' sounds that was almost deafening, it began to slow down however, and made its way to the station Mandy, and Grim stood at. Mandy was impressed with the train's dark designs; its entire shape and structure was designed to be almost a metal monster.

"I-Impossible!" Grim shouted looking terrified "That's the previous version of the Underworld Express!"

"What?" asked Mandy "This train is from the Underworld?"

"Indeed" said Grim as he took a few steps back "But this model was removed seven hundred years ago, I thought it was completely scrapped."

Suddenly the carriage doors slowly opened, Mandy soon felt a chill down her spine, she knew something wasn't right.

Mandy was suddenly blinded by a massive burst of light coming from her side as Grim screamed in pain, a quick glance shown he was being electrocuted and suddenly collapsed into a pile of bones unconscious. She looked ahead and to her shock, it was Phineas with his backpack on and a strange gun with electrical sparks coming from the muzzle, it was pointing directly at her.

This kind of behaviour took Mandy by surprise as she took a step back. "You shoot me, and you'll regret it!" she said trying to sound threatening.

Phineas however, looked like he was really hesitant to fire, but he gulped loudly before speaking up. "Mandy… I am REALLY sorry."

Phineas fired the gun shooting out an electrical spark at her, with no time to react, she took the hit to her chest and was being violently electrocuted, letting out a scream of pain as she could feel her skin burning and her bones rattling like they were about to shatter into pieces, soon darkness clouded her vision and she became numb, passing out.

* * *

Back at the museum, we find the students just outside it readying to go to one of the other museums. That was until the Principal done a head check "Hmm… curious, where are Mandy, Junior, Pud'n and Phineas?"

"BIG TROUBLE!" shouted both Pud'n and Junior as they ran towards them in a panic.

"Goodness! What's the matter?!"

"Its Mandy!" said Junior "She and Grim been kidnapped by Phineas and a bunch of goons in a giant train!"

"Oh my!" shouted the Principal "We had better inform the police at once!" he soon noticed the other kids protesting to this, all of them saying not to since they hate Mandy.

"MY DARLING MANDY!" shouted Irwin holding back his tears while trying to look tough. "No one kidnaps my sweet angel and gets away with it! I'LL SAVE YOU MY DEAR!" Irwin immediately ran off going past Junior and Pud'n.

"Wait!" shouted Pud'n "You don't know the way!" with that, Junior and Pud'n ran off too.

"Wait up!" shouted Billy as he started running too "Mandy's my best friend!"

"No one bullies my nerds except me!" shouted Sperg as he punched his fists together.

"You seriously think Mandy's your nerd?" asked Mindy as she looked up to him.

"No! I mean Billy, Irwin and the others!" said Sperg looking angry "They're gonna get their butts kicked by these kidnappers! So, it is my duty as a bully to protect them from other bullies while bullying them! NOW C'MON!"

Sperg suddenly grabbed Mindy by the waist and ran off with her following the others. "WHAT'RE YOU DOING?! I DON'T WANT PART OF THIS!" she screamed.

"Students wait!" shouted the Principal, but he didn't follow them. He soon faces the other teachers "Let's get the police, let them know of this and fast." with that, the teachers and students ran towards the police station "Good luck students." he mumbled.


	5. 0-5:Returning Faces

Mandy soon began to regain consciousness, the first feeling she felt was a strong stinging feeling all over due to the electrocution, not even Nergal's electrocution had as much power as she felt just now. She tried to move to a more comfortable position but discovered she can't move her arms and legs; her vision was still blurry, but it began to focus, and she began to see her surroundings. It looked like the insides of a train carriage, very spacious in the middle and had several chairs and tables at the side, but they all looked gothic and metallic, she looked up to see her wrists were shackled to the ceiling making her arms pointed up, she looked down to see her ankles were shackled to the ground together. She also felt a rocking sensation, as if they were moving, a quick look out of the window shown they were.

She finally looked ahead to see a tall slim figure facing her. The figure wore what looked like a combination of an 1800s Conductor outfit mixed with a gothic style, had green skin, pointy ears and a big pointed nose, he walked towards Mandy, at first, she had trouble remembering who it was, she recognized him, but her memory was a bit fuzzy. But soon it all came back to her.

"Boogey?" asked Mandy.

"Long time no see Mandy. Welcome aboard the Boogey Express." Boogey chuckled as he turned to behind him. "Alright buddy, have you finished unlocking it?"

"A-Almost." Mandy was shocked to see that it was Phineas, who was slowly unlocking the lead box that was previously shown in his bag. "But please… don't call me buddy!"

"Phineas!? What the heck is going on?" Mandy muttered.

* * *

Outside, we find the other kids heading towards a bridge, as they got onto it, they all saw off in the distance, the giant train about to go under the bridge. "That's the train we saw those goons take Mandy and Grim into" said Junior.

"I just can't believe Phineas is with them!" exclaimed Pud'n.

"How the heck are we gonna get on?" asked Billy.

"Our only option seems to be… jump onto the train as it passes over." said Junior.

"You're seriously gonna risk your lives for that loser Mandy?!" asked Mindy as she still tried to get free of Sperg's grip "You really are a bunch of idiots! Do you think she's going to say thanks or something?!"

"I don't care! Mandy's my best friend!" said Billy.

"And the love of my life!" said Irwin.

"I may not like Mandy that much." said Pud'n. "But I wouldn't dream of anything bad happening to her or anyone I knew!"

"My father once said… always help my family." said Junior "She's not part of my family but she's friends with cousin Billy, that's good enough for me!"

"I'm just here to help out my nerds, only I'm suppose to bully them!" said Sperg.

"You're all idiotic losers!" shouted Mindy. "And will you let me go!"

"We better do this now!" shouted Irwin. "Here it comes!"

The train was closing in fast, so the kids immediately jumped onto the farther side of the bridge fence and got ready to jump. Junior looked behind him to give the signal. "Ready… and… NOW!"

All the kids - besides Mindy who was still held onto by Sperg - jumped off of the bridge as the front of the train appeared under them, but to their surprise, the train had smashed through the bridge revealing it was too large, the drop was short however as they all landed fine on the last carriage at the end since the train was moving too fast for them to land on the front.

"Wow! We did it!" said Pud'n.

"LOOK OUT!" shouted Irwin pointing to another bridge which got smashed to pieces.

The pieces began to fly towards the kids who all screamed except for Junior and Sperg who dropped Mindy. Sperg and Junior jumped forward and began to punch the bridge pieces into smaller pieces using Sperg's great strength and Junior's fists which turned into giant monster claws.

"Nice one!" shouted Billy.

"Thanks, but we better get off the roof before more bridges come!" said Junior.

"How about here?" said Pud'n as he pointed to a ladder leading to a door at the back of the carriage they were on.

* * *

"I thought you were cowering away in your home!" said Mandy regaining all of her memories, now getting her evil demeanour back.

"That was three years ago." said Boogey shrugging his shoulders. "I did lose my memories and became scared of everything at first, but that didn't last long, I just pretended to, so I can begin my ultimate plan!"

Mandy was silent, but she then looked around "This is an Underworld Train, right? Grim told me it was supposed to be scrapped seven hundred years ago." She said, not caring what Boogey said earlier.

"The ones who were supposed to scrap it were friends of mine, they gave me the train to upgrade." said Boogey looking smug. "After all, Underworld Trains don't need rails and they can cross dimensions… plus those seven hundred years of tweaking and upgrading it made it superior to the latest model."

"So, what is this stupid plan of yours then?" asked Mandy. "Wanna become the Boogey-Reaper again?"

"Not at all, my plan comes in a few stages…" said Boogey.

"Done." said Phineas as he walked a little closer with the lead box, now every lock is removed and was finally open. Phineas opened the box and took out the item. To Mandy's shock, it really was what she had expected.

"The Cyclops Ruby!? You stole it!? Just to give it to Boogey!?"

Boogey snatched the ruby from Phineas as he chuckled. "Well done!"

"W-We have a deal, I got you the ruby, can you let my friends go!?" said Phineas trying to act tough, but Mandy could easily tell he was intimidated.

Boogey let out a chuckle as he took out a receiver. "Charles. Teleport the hostages back to Danville, we don't need them anymore."

Mandy glared at Phineas, she was angry at him for what he did, but giving the circumstances, it was easy to tell Boogey was blackmailing him, so she simply glared at Boogey, thinking of ways to get her revenge, but with her arms and legs shackled, she wasn't in a good position right now.


	6. 0-6:The Nightmare Begins

The kids arrived in the inside of the last carriage, seeing its gothic metallic decoration. "Mandy must be at the front!" said Irwin.

"Kids?" asked a familiar voice. They all looked to see it was Grim's head being hung onto a hook on the wall, the rest of his body and scythe were nowhere to be found.

"Grim?!" asked Billy. "What happened?"

"That big-nosed jerk Boogey did this!" said Grim.

"Boogey's back?!" asked Irwin. "But I thought he was gonna stay in his home for all eternity."

"Seems dat fear syndrome he was in was temporary" said Grim. "He and Mandy are at the front, and he has me scythe."

"Where's the rest of your body?" asked Junior.

"Most likely scattered in the other carriages" said Grim "If ya assemble me I can take Boogey on, even if he has me scythe, I can still fight back with what magic I have left!"

"Ok, let's do this!" said Billy as he jumped up and got Grim's head off the hook.

"Careful." said Grim. "He has an army!"

"Um… maybe I should stay here then." said Mindy looking scared.

"Ah c'mon! it'll be fun!" said Sperg as he grabbed Mindy again and the kids ran towards the next carriage.

* * *

Back at the front carriage. Mandy merely looked at Boogey as he clutched the Cyclops Ruby. Boogey then looked at Phineas. "I gotta hand it to ya, I didn't think you'd pull off stealing this ruby as well as you did, and you captured Mandy, you've got quite a future in the criminal industry kid." Phineas remained silent, he looked both angry and worried. It was easy to tell he wanted to get back at him, but right now he couldn't.

"So, what are you two gonna do. Just simply buy the world and Underworld?" Mandy asked in a somewhat mocking tone.

"Buy?" asked Boogey looking confused.

"You do know that thing's worth several quadrillion dollars, right? Isn't that why you stole the Cyclops Ruby?"

Boogey was silent, but then he began to chuckle. "You really don't get it, do you?" Boogey asked. "This... Cyclops Ruby? Such a silly name you humans' have dubbed it."

"What are you talking about?"

"Dear little Mandy." Boogey chuckled. "It's not called the Cyclops Ruby... It's the Nightmare Ruby!"

Mandy was silent for a few seconds, but then she looked down at the Ruby. "Lemme guess, it brings out their worst fears?"

"The Nightmare Ruby is a powerful artefact that only affects Dream People, like myself. With this and the Boogey Express by my side, there is nothing anyone can do to stop me!"

"Oh please." Mandy scoffed. "You may have some fancy toys, but you're still the pathetic bumbling loser I will always know you as."

Boogey chuckled. "Ha! Still stubborn and arrogant to the end! You do not realise the power this Ruby has! I could crush every bone in your body and not even break a sweat!" Boogey chuckled again. "Wanna know the worst part. That will be nothing compared to what **he** has in store for you."

"Who's he?" asked Mandy.

"Wouldn't you like to know" said Boogey "You'll meet him soon enough." Boogey then stands up and grabs Mandy's head gently to turn her to the window, Mandy saw that the train was now surrounded by dark blue and golden lights. "The Boogey Express has already entered the warp zone. As long as we get no interruptions, we'll reach our destination in no time. Then the exchange can be complete."

Phineas took notice of the lights from the window. "Wait a second! You said you were gonna drop me off at Danville!"

"Yeah, about that." Said Boogey as he turned to him. "You see, it's all too easy for you and your dumb friends and brother to interrupt my plans. Besides, you're a witness to my schemes, so like it or not, you're a prisoner now!"

"What!? You can't do this! We had a deal!"

"Oh Phineas, so naïve and dumb. I plan on getting rid of you too!"

Phineas looked shocked by this, but then he took out the same electric gun he used on Mandy and aimed at him, but to his surprise, a metallic scythe with a red lens on the blade flew in from nowhere and sliced the gun in half, the startled Phineas dropped the broken gun and looked at the scythe floating up to him, then without hesitation, it shot Phineas with a red laser, he yelled in pain before falling to the ground unconscious.

"Scythe 2.0?" Mandy muttered.

"A pleasure to meet you again." Said Scythe 2.0 in a robotic butler voice. "Especially under these circumstances. It then floated into Boogey's hand as he gently grasped it.

Boogey chuckled once again. "Scythe 2.0 has so much potential, it surpasses Grim's scythe in every way. Shame it got damaged before I was able to buy it, it can't cross dimensions anymore."

"You're still just a weak idiot." Said Mandy. "You can't do anything by yourself, that's why you got this dumb train and a half-broken piece of crud of a scythe. You even had to rely on some dumb kid to get you that ruby."

"It's all necessary for our big plan." Boogey walked up to Mandy and grabbed her by her hair. "Besides, blackmailing Phineas into stealing a valuable artefact, then betraying him at the last second. I think the funniest part of all this is, I think you would've done the same, whether he was a threat to you or not."

Mandy simply kept quiet, in a way, Boogey was right, she hardly cared for him, and she still had ideas to get revenge on him for what he did, blackmailed or not.

Suddenly, there was a loud bang in the next carriage, Boogey releases Mandy, places the Nightmare Ruby in his pocket and walks up to the door and looks through the window. "What the heck?"

Suddenly Billy smashed through the window smacking into Boogey's face sending them both flying over to the other side and landing hard on the door to the train itself, losing his grip on Scythe 2.0 in the process. "Billy?!" asked Boogey in shock "What are you-"

The door smashed open revealing the other kids and even Grim who had his entire body and robes back, Mindy however was still trying to get free of Sperg's arm. "The jig is up Boogey!" said Grim.

Boogey immediately grabbed Billy and threw him back to the others with Junior catching him with one of his tentacles. "Hmph! I was hoping to have met you later when we were fully prepared! Such a shame you had to arrive when we were not finished with the preparations."

"Oh! Are you throwing a party!?" Asked Billy. "Is it Grim's Birthday!?"

Boogey quickly got up faced them properly the others. "Just what have you done to my army?!"

"We beat them up" said Grim pointing to the next carriage revealing a bunch of unconscious Underworld monsters, like the ones that were in the Boogey Bay long ago.

"Well now." said Boogey cracking his knuckles. "Looks like I'll have to get my fists a little dirty! And by that, I mean my scythes!"

"Scythes!?" asked Grim looking concerned.

Boogey opened his hand and Scythe 2.0 flew into it, then he summoned Grim's scythe in his free hand. "Long time no see Grim Reaper." Said Scythe 2.0. "I trust you have been doing well, though I hope you had not."

"How did ya get 2.0!?"

Boogey shrugged. "It was easy to buy when people marked it off as a disposable razor blade. And unlike you, I took good care of it."

"Agreed, and now that he is my new master, we can accomplish far more than you and I would have. And that includes getting rid of the kids for good. Though unfortunately, I am forbidden to reap Mandy's soul, she is very valuable cargo!"

"NO ONE CALLS MY DEAR MANDY CARGO!" shouted Irwin, he thrusts his arm forward and he suddenly shot a mummy bandage out of his arm trying to smack Boogey with it, but he immediately dodged to the right, Irwin grabbed a metal pole with the bandage and flew forward to the pole smacking Boogey with his body, but smacking his own head against the pole knocking him out instantly.

"Idiot kid." mumbled Boogey as he immediately stood up and prepared both scythes, ready to fight until he saw Junior throw Billy towards them.

Boogey was about to swing Scythe 2.0 at Billy, but Sperg came out of nowhere and threw a punch into his stomach letting Billy fly over them. Boogey quickly recovered and was about to strike Sperg, but Junior shot two tentacles out pushing him back, dropping Grim's scythe, Sperg jumped backwards to get some space. Boogey managed to get the tentacles off them with Scythe 2.0 slicing them to pieces, but all they did was fly back to Junior unharmed.

"Grim! Catch!" shouted Billy, Boogey and Scythe 2.0 looked behind him to see Billy was holding Grim's scythe and he immediately threw it causing it to spin like a Frisbee.

Boogey jumped to the side dodging the scythe's blade and it flew over to Grim who immediately caught the scythe and performed two fast slices shooting out two lade-like lasers, Boogey blocked both of them with Scythe 2.0 but was sent flying back as a result. But Scythe 2.0 quickly flew back into his hand.

Pud'n and Sperg immediately jumped forward tackling Boogey to the ground and tried to beat him up, but Boogey got some distance before they could punch him and was about to swing Scythe 2.0 at them, until Billy immediately jumped and grabbed Boogey's neck from behind. Sperg and Pud'n tried to tackle him again but he dodged.

Boogey managed to get Billy off him and slammed him down on Sperg and Pud'n. "FORE!" Boogey shouted before smacking the three sending with the blunt end of Scythe 2.0 like a golf club flying, but Junior shot three of his tentacles and caught them, placing them gently down onto their feet. Junior then charged forward baring large fangs, claws and a hooked tail. But Boogey swung down smacking Junior in the head sending him to the ground, but Sperg charged forward and punched Boogey in the stomach, letting Junior and Pud'n join in the fight easier.

Mindy herself kept to the back watching the fight. "This is insane!" She muttered. "Why the heck are we fighting for that loser!?" She looked on towards the window seeing the golden and dark blue lights. "Mind you… if what Grim said is true… we're going to another dimension…" she looked back at Mandy. "We'll be stuck in wherever we're going. We… we might actually need Mandy."

Boogey tied Junior, Sperg and Pud'n in Junior's own tentacles and threw them all over to the other side of the carriage, Grim charged forward with his scythe, Boogey did the same and the two smacked their scythes together making a big flash of light and disarming both of them. Grim's landed near Mindy who kept behind one of the seats, and the other flew towards the surprised Mandy, she flinched but thankfully Scythe 2.0 missed her completely. She let out a faint sigh of relief.

Grim was about to throw a punch but Boogey managed to hit him first, then he began to clobber the heck out of him with several punches, then he threw Billy into Grim sending them both to the ground, landing on Junior, Sperg and Pud'n.

Boogey stepped towards them looking confident. Grim was about to reach for his scythe until Boogey slammed his foot into his hand. "Ha! Imagine that! You're the all-powerful Grim Reaper, and you're nothing without your little master!" Boogey twists his foot slightly hurting Grim more. "And to think I was always second place to you! Well not any more, especially with Scythe 2.0 and my third companion!"

"Third companion?" asked Grim. "Who?"

"Oh, I wouldn't worry about that if I were you." Boogey replied. "You better worry just what this dimensional stream will do to you when we throw you into it! Now then Scythe 2.0, let's finish them off!" He held out his hand, but Scythe 2.0 didn't come to him. "Scythe 2.0?"

"Help me master!" Everyone looked to see Phineas was awake and held a tight grip on Scythe 2.0, preventing him from escaping.

"Deal's off!" shouted Phineas as he jumped up high and threw Scythe 2.0 like a frisbee similar to what Billy did, striking the chains on Mandy's ankles and landing blade first into the ground stuck. He then ran past them to get to the others.

"You owe me one!" shouted Mindy as she jumped up holding Grim's scythe, she threw it like a Frisbee as well. The scythe immediately struck the chains holding Mandy's wrists and she dropped to the ground. Although the shackles were still around her wrists and ankles, she was free. Mandy immediately grabbed both Grim's Scythe and Scythe 2.0 and charged forward to the shocked Boogey.

Mandy threw Scythe 2.0 towards Boogey forcing him to dodge, but she jumped and threw a kick into Boogey's face sending him down, then she tried to swing for him, but Scythe 2.0 quickly turned Boogey into a cloud of smoke to dodge the scythe and move away.

Boogey changed back to normal, took Scythe 2.0 and swung it into Mandy's hand disarming the scythe from her, then he grabbed her and threw her forward, but Mandy quickly recovered and threw a punch into his stomach, and then jumped up to throw a kick into his chin sending him flying back. Boogey recovered, lunged forward to try and punch her but Mandy threw an uppercut to counter sending him back, then she quickly grabbed Grim's scythe again and shot several lightning bolts from it electrocuting both Boogey and Scythe 2.0 who wailed in agony.

Mandy desist her attack as she looked at the burnt Boogey and Scythe 2.0, but still alive. "Alright you freak!" Mandy demanded. "You better surrender that Ruby, and take us all back to our world, before I turn you into dust!"

Boogey weakly pushed himself up, noticed Scythe 2.0 rising slowly but short circuiting, then smiled deviously at her. Mandy was about to question them until Boogey grabbed Scythe 2.0 and placed it into the room behind him. He turned back to them, and tapped his foot, at that point, all the chairs in the carriage were elevated down into the floor, giving them even more space.

Boogey took out the Nightmare Ruby from his pocket and gave an evil smile that the Grinch would be jealous of. "I wasn't going to use this but NOW YOU'VE MADE ME MAD!"

Boogey suddenly jammed the pointed end of the ruby into his chest making a loud crunching sound. This startled Mandy, not expecting this at all. Boogey grunted and panted in agony as he began to hammer the Ruby deeper into his chest with his hands, everyone else stepped back looking shocked and disgusted.

"He's insane!" Mindy shouted.

Boogey finally stopped as he fell to his knees, laughing weakly. "Watch the power… of the Nightmare Ruby at work!"

In a sudden shock, Boogey's neck twisted ninety degrees to the right making a severe snapping sound, his arms and legs twisted in that similar manner, but then he began to float up as the Ruby started to glow a violent red and yellow. Then with a loud agonising scream, a powerful shockwave emitted from him which pushed everyone back.

Boogey's entire body began to bubble and inflate in different areas, as he continued to scream, both his arms immediately became gigantic and bulky in a flash, forcing his body down to the ground due to the sheer size and weight difference, his head began to twist and crack, his head became less pointed and began to widen out, his nose got smaller, his jaw got wider, his eyes began to melt. Everyone was in complete horror as they saw this, even Mandy began to shiver at the mere sight of this, forcing her to step back a bit.

Boogey's middle half began to inflate severely, so much in fact it began to outsize his gigantic arms, the middle of his stomach began to rip slowly, but after one suddenly push, it ripped clean open unleashed a large torrent of black mist that vanished into the ground, the open gap then began to grow teeth at the same time his legs grew extremely muscular.

In a reddish flash, the transformation was complete. Boogey now had a round head, a small nose, tiny red eyes to replace his old ones, and a widened mouth with six sets of razor-sharp crooked teeth. His stomach was now super wide with a row of teeth in the middle, his arms were super muscular with black veins running across it on the outside and having spikes all across his wrists, knuckles and nails, his legs were a bit shorter than the rest of him, but still large and bulky, and most of his clothes besides his trousers were torn to pieces. And in the middle of his chest was the Nightmare Ruby, with its eye glowing fiercely in multiple colours.

"So dat Cyclops Ruby was de Nightmare Ruby all along!" Grim muttered. "I should've known."

Boogey began to chuckle in a demonic tone. "You're in for it now! My new body has more power than anything you can possibly imagine!"


	7. 0-7:Train Wreck Brawl

Mandy was horrified to see this new form Boogey had taken, this train was double the size and height of a regular train, and Boogey's head was almost touching the ceiling. He simple stared forward with his demonic looking eyes, everyone including her were too scared to react.

"So…" Boogey chuckled in his new voice. "I'm finally scary to you. Too bad for you, scaring you is no longer my priority! I need Mandy for my plan, the rest of you I have no intention of leaving alive!"

With that, Boogey suddenly began to march towards them with terrible sounding footsteps that shook the carriage. Mandy immediately snapped out of it and began to fire more lightning bolts from the scythe, but all they did was simply bounce off his large stomach. Mandy charged up the scythe for a few seconds and blasted out a huge bolt of lightning, but all it did was slow him down for a second.

When Boogey got too close, he reached for Mandy, but she quickly jumped to the right and slammed the scythe into his side, but the blade itself just stopped against his skin surprising her. Boogey then suddenly threw his arm backhanding Mandy throwing her against the wall on the other side instantly knocking her out.

Phineas jumped onto Boogey's arm trying to pull him away, but all Boogey did was reach for him and grabbed him. "Poor deluded Phineas!" he chuckled as Phineas struggled to get free from. "If only you were smart enough to work with me!"

Boogey then suddenly threw Phineas towards the window smashing it and he fell into the lights disappearing, the window then slowly repaired itself. Everyone looked in shock to see Boogey just get rid of Phineas like this, but they quickly redirected their focus back to him.

Boogey raised his gigantic arm readying to crush the others, but right before he did, Grim threw both his hands up and created a large red barrier blocking the strike but was struggling.

Sperg jumped onto Grim's head and jumped off it, he landed on Boogey's chest and began throwing several punches into his face, but not one of them made him even flinch. Boogey however did refrain from continuing his attack and was about to punch Sperg, but Junior caught Sperg in one of his tentacles and pulled him back in time making Boogey punch himself in the face.

Boogey was forced back a bit as he held onto his face grunting in pain, but then he charged forward with another punch aiming at Sperg and Junior, but the two jumped to a different side dodging it. Grim then shot an energy blast from his hands hitting Boogey's face, but it didn't do anything, Boogey responded with throwing another punch towards Grim who created another barrier, but it shattered immediately, and the punch sent Grim flying all the way to the end carriage exploding into a pile of bones.

Junior jumped in and launched several tentacles forward, each grabbing a piece of Boogey and attempted to push him back, but it didn't work as Boogey spun around taking Junior with him and throwing him to the other side of the carriage, Billy jumped onto Boogey's back and climbed up and began to bite his ear, Boogey tried to get him off but he couldn't reach behind his back, his muscles were too big to bend all the way.

Pud'n and Mindy kept to the back. "We gotta get outta here!" Mindy exclaimed.

"How!? We're in a train that's crossing through dimensions!"

"I…" she looked at Boogey still struggling to get Billy off. "Maybe we can use his size to our advantage!" She turned back to Pud'n. "Do we have anything that's like a rope?"

As Boogey tried to reach for Billy, he saw Sperg run towards him and tried to punch him in the stomach, but it opened up with its razor sharp teeth and tried to tear him apart, thankfully he jumped back in time for Junior to jump up and shoot his tentacles on Boogey, looking as if he was punching him a hundred times a second. While they didn't hurt him, the consecutive punches began to push him back, Boogey was now forced with keeping his ground while using his arms as a shield.

Mindy was able to take a belt from one of the unconscious crew members in the next carriage and she sneakily strapped it around Boogey's legs, although they were big and bulky, they were also close together making it easy. She quickly ran back as Pud'n quickly chewed on a piece of chocolate he had in his pocket, then he spat it out on the ground near Boogey's feet.

When both Pud'n and Mindy were out of the way, Junior took this opportunity to stop his barrage of tentacle punches and threw them all at once into one big attack that pushed Boogey further back, he accidentally stepped on the chewed up chocolate and it caused him to slip backwards, Billy jumped off of him just before he landed on the ground hard.

Boogey leaned up and tried to reach for the belt that kept his legs together, but he couldn't reach past his giant gut. "C'MON! STUPID BODY!" Boogey roared in anger.

Mandy began to regain consciousness, she quickly realised the situation, then she grabbed Grim's scythe and charged forward. Boogey noticed this and tried to grab her, but Mandy dodged in time and smacked Boogey in the face with the scythe knocking his head back down to the ground.

Boogey in a fit of rage slammed both his hands onto the ground launching him up slightly, enough to grab onto the metal poles on the ceiling and get back onto his feet. As Boogey turned to face Mandy, he was already struck numerous times with the scythe. Because of his legs tied together, it made it more difficult to retain his stance, forcing Boogey to keep his grip on the poles so as to not fall over again.

With this, Sperg jumped forward and began to attack the back of his legs with several punches. Junior jumped up again and began throwing several tentacle punches again on his back. Billy then jumped onto Boogey's head and began biting on it. Pud'n and Mindy kept back, but were glad to see Boogey restrained while Mandy, Junior, Billy and Sperg kept attacking him.

"ENOOOOUGH!"

Boogey screamed making the entire train shake and throwing the four off him. In anger, he ripped the belt apart with his legs and kicked Sperg into a wall knocking him out, he then grabbed Billy and slammed him into the ground knocking him out too. Junior charged forward but Boogey slammed his right foot onto him stopping him completely, he saw Mandy jump forward again with the scythe, but Boogey quickly counteracted by grabbing Mandy forcing her to lose her grip on the scythe.

Mandy struggled desperately trying to get free, but she couldn't even budge. All she could do was thrash her head about and kick her legs wildly as Boogey laughed.

"So, it seems that my new body has some flaws. And being in a cramped space does mean I can't go full force." Boogey looked around him. "But your attacks were not even worth the dirt on your shoes!" He then turned back to Mandy. "I told you before that this new form could crush your bones!" Boogey began to tighten his grip on Mandy making her grunt in pain. "But that's nothing compared to what my companion has in store for you! Just be thankful I have to bring you in alive and in one piece!"

"Using cheap tactics! You make me sick Boogey!" Mandy grunted, but began to choke a bit as Boogey tightened his grip further.

"Now then, which one of you should I throw out of this train first?" Boogey asked before chuckling evilly. "I'm sure Phineas could use some company. Provided the dimension hasn't already torn him to pieces!"

"MANDY!" Boogey turned to see that Irwin had regained consciousness and had transformed into his mummy-vampire form from Underfist. Irwin flew forward and threw a surprisingly strong punch knocking Boogey a few steps back and releasing his grip on Mandy.

Boogey threw his own punch but Irwin flew to the side and kicked him in the head knocking him further backwards. Irwin began to fire multiple energy blasts at Boogey, but he charged forward and threw another punch which Irwin blocked with his two hands forcing back slightly.

"Where did your stupid strength come from!?" asked Boogey.

"I may be a nerd and a wimp yo!" Irwin grabbed Boogey's arm. "But I've got Vampire and Mummy Blood in me!" Irwin then suddenly lifted Boogey and slammed his entire body onto the other side of him landing on his back again.

Irwin then fired a huge string of lighting directly at the Nightmare Ruby embedded into his chest which created more red sparks. Irwin threw everything he had into the attack, but Boogey quickly pushed back, grabbed Irwin and slammed him onto the ground. Boogey managed to jump back onto his feet, becoming more adapted to his new body.

He then began to stomp on Irwin repeatedly. "YOU! JUST! DON'T! KNOW! WHEN! TO! QUIT! DO! YOU!"

Boogey then threw one last kick sending Irwin flying onto the ceiling, he fell unconscious again. He then began to walk towards Mandy, Mindy and Pud'n.

"Drat! He was our last shot!" Mindy exclaimed.

"What do we do!?" Asked a distressed Pud'n.

Mandy stepped back a bit. "Tch… we know he's not invincible. And Irwin's made me realise something. If we can remove the Ruby, then surely he'll change back!"

"But how are we supposed to do that!?" Asked Mindy. "None of us are strong enough!"

When Boogey was halfway to them, he noticed Junior trying to get up. "You… big bully!" Junior shot more tentacles to try and punch him, but he was too weak to do so.

Boogey chuckled and responded by slamming his foot onto him and kept him pressed down. "I gotta admit! I like your tricks! But you're just a weak little freak of nature! I am more powerful than anything you could ever be! So why don't you-"

In a fit of rage, Junior roared and created a black shockwave that threw Boogey back, in an instant, Nergal Junior transformed into a tall skeletal being with green flames emitting all over his body, large claws and feet, two large bull horns, a large skeletal tail, and still donned his vicious green eyes.

"IT'S ON BUB!" Junior screamed as he charged forward throwing several powerful punches to Boogey back and forth.

Boogey managed to recover and throw a punch himself pushing Junior back and then another one, but Junior recovered quicker and not only pushed him harder but began to breathe a huge stream of fire right on his chest, not only pushing him back, but striking the Nightmare Ruby making more red sparks fly.

Boogey charged forward and grabbed Junior by the neck and began to push him further back, then with his free hand, he began to do several punches to his face. Junior shot fire from his mouth again right into Boogey's face pushing him back, then Junior punched himself free, ignited his free hand and threw a punch directly into the Nightmare Ruby making more sparks fly as well as throwing Boogey back.

Meanwhile, Pud'n was holding Grim's scythe, and was shooting a special energy beam into Mandy causing sparks to fly from her body making her glow slightly. Their plan was to increase Mandy's strength enough to surpass Boogey's.

"Keep it up you!" said Mandy. "I don't know how much longer Junior can hold him back!"

"We better hope this is enough. " said Pud'n. "Looks like Junior's starting to get weaker."

Boogey threw two more punches to Junior and grabbed his neck again with both hands in an attempt to strangle him. "You're going down you little freak!"

Junior responded by turning his right arm into tentacles and shot them at the Nightmare Ruby. Boogey became shocked seeing and feeling the tentacles get in between the small gaps between his body and the Ruby, trying to rip it out. "You first!" Junior began to pull making the Nightmare Ruby stretch from Boogey's body, making hundreds of red sparks fly. Boogey released one of his hands in an attempt to punch him

Mandy suddenly charged forward at a blinding speed, she let out a monstrous scream as she threw a powerful punch into Boogey's stomach causing a large black explosion. Boogey was sent flying back and the Nightmare Ruby was completely ripped from his chest.

As Boogey swiftly changed back, he flew through the door to the train's engine, he shot past Creeper who had been driving the train the entire time and smashed into the controls causing a massive electrical burst everywhere making small explosions around the unconscious Boogey.

Creeper looked behind him to see Mandy and Junior who had just changed back, he held onto the Nightmare Ruby.

But Mandy suddenly collapsed onto the ground on her side feeling completely exhausted, all the power she used into that and the energy leaving her body drained much more than she had anticipated, from one punch and so much energy, she couldn't move.

"Woah! You ok!?" asked Junior as he dropped the Nightmare Ruby.

Suddenly a lightning bolt from the machine shot Junior sending him flying, Mandy's eyes widened seeing this, she tried to move but she lost so much energy suddenly.

Boogey had regained consciousness but was injured greatly, all of the attacks had caught up to him at once, he saw what had happened to Mandy "Heh, that wasn't… just Grim's Scythe…"

Suddenly another explosion shot Boogey off the controls he was embedded into, Creeper immediately got down onto one knee and picked up Boogey with one arm over him. "This trains going to blow! We gotta get outta here!" said Creeper.

"We need Mandy alive!" said Boogey.

"Sorry sir, but your top priority." said Creeper as he began to walk off while dragging Boogey. He slowly stepped over Mandy ignoring the explosions getting louder and louder.

"Scythe 2.0! Get her!" called Boogey.

Scythe 2.0 flew out of the room, went up to Mandy and was about to lift her from the collar of her dress with the tip of its blade, but another lightning bolt from the machine shot it far over her.

Mandy looked over to Scythe 2.0, still too exhausted to move properly, she then looked ahead seeing the controls making even more explosions, Mandy's eyes had great fear in them knowing she was very close to the controls and the entire train was going to explode. She did everything she could to push herself up and try to get away, but she lost everything and dropped to the ground. Soon a large tremor occurred as a blinding light began to emanate from the controls, Mandy immediately closed her eyes tight.

* * *

 **BOOOOOOM!**

* * *

Mandy started to regain consciousness, her vision was all too blurry to make out anything, and her body was completely numb from immense pain, but her hearing was almost perfect, all she could hear however was the sound of the waves and seagulls calling in the sky, her thought process was slowed down greatly, but she was able to figure out that she must be at sea.

Her vision became slightly clearer, but not by much, because she couldn't move her head, she moved her eyes to look around, from what she could gather, she was at sea, on top of a large portion of metal from the Boogey Express, shaped to look almost bowl like. But soon her vision became even more blurred as her consciousness was slipping from her more and more.

"Look!" shouted an unfamiliar voice "There's a child overboard!"

"What the deuce!? Where did she come from?!" said another unfamiliar voice.

"A child?!" asked another voice, this one was slightly higher pitched. "Hold on there!"

Mandy felt the waves bounce her as one of the voices had jumped into the water. She looked to see a blurred silhouette tower over her placing its arms under her and picked her up, Mandy let out faint grunts of pain, being very sensitive at this point.

"Don't worry, you'll be fine" said the higher pitched voice. "Ok, I got her, pull me up!" Mandy soon began to feel elevated, like she was being raised, but her consciousness was at the brink of leaving. "This girl is very injured, she needs immediate medical attention." said the higher pitched voice.

And thus… darkness.


	8. 1-1:Hospitality

Mandy slowly woke up with a very dizzy feel to herself, after a few seconds of trying to recompose herself, Mandy yawned as she closed her eyes. But she opened her eyes again to see a white wooden roof, she then realised she was lying in a brown bed with a slight rocking sensation, but was different from before.

Mandy leaned up and looked around, there were wooden walls and flooring, a cupboard, a small table and bench, and a round window not far from her, she looked out of it to see the ocean, she then assumed she was on a boat. "What… happened?" she mumbled.

She sat up and removed the blanket, and to her surprise, she had a few bandages on her arms and legs, but what surprised her more was that she was now wearing a new dress similar to her old pink one, but it was red with a white collar and rim, it also had a picture of a tulip instead of the blue and yellow flower. She then noticed a hand mirror on the desk next to her bed, she picked it up and looked at herself, she was surprised to see a bandage around her forehead and over her right eye.

"W-What… happened? The last thing I remember was-" Mandy was cut off half way by a strong stinging feeling in her head. Remembering the feeling of her entire body being struck by intense flames and metal. Remembering that she was hit by the explosion of the Boogey Express. "H-How … how the heck did I survive that. But… how the heck did I end up from a train to a boat?"

Soon Mandy heard the door opening and looked ahead, there a new face entered the room. This new face was a mid-thirties 5.1ft chubby man with a big nose accompanied by a big black bushy moustache, the man wore a red shirt and a red cap with an M on it, blue overalls with a strange clip on the back to hold his large golden headed hammer, big brown boots and had white gloves. "So, you're awake huh?" asked the man with a slightly high-pitched voice, Mandy immediately recognised the voice, but had trouble remembering when.

"Y-Yeah." said Mandy, her thought process still felt very fuzzy. "Who are you?"

"My name is Mario." said the man. "How do you feel?"

"B-Bit… dizzy." said Mandy as she held the side of her head with one hand. "Where am I?"

"On a boat to Rogueport." said Mario as he walked closer and went down onto one knee to her level. "We found you in the middle of the ocean, almost completely burnt and had a tone of metal pieces in your body, it was a good thing the boat had some spare clothes your size, your old ones were too burnt and torn. Any idea what happened?"

"It's… a pretty long story." said Mandy. "How long was I out?"

"About two hours. Luckily, we were able to heal most of your wounds with the help of an Ultra Mushroom, but the rest of your wounds had to be tended to the old-fashioned way."

 _"Ultra Mushroom?"_ Mandy thought _"Where exactly am I?"_

"Hold still please." said Mario, he began to remove the bandages around Mandy's arms and legs, he then removed them from her head, Mandy's vision improved greatly now that her other eye was free. Mario then smiled. "You seemed to have made a full recovery. But let's test that first."

Mario stood up and took Mandy's hands, he began to pull Mandy onto her bare feet on the slightly cold floor and he soon let go, Mandy felt a bit off balanced but she soon stood straight. Mandy soon looked up at Mario "Where am I anyway? I mean exactly. I highly doubt I'm in Wrail Village?"

"Wrail Village? Where's that?" asked Mario.

"Um, in America, not that far from Endsville." Mandy replied.

"America…?" Mario rubbed his chin. "I can't recall that anywhere, nor this Wrail Village or Endsville?"

Mandy felt confused, a man who's never heard of America. She then realised something, remembering what Boogey said. "This… isn't Planet Earth is it?"

"Um, no, this is Planet Plitiral."

"Plitiral? So, I guess I ended up on another planet."

"I guess…" Mario responded with a confused look. "You're specifically in the Mushroom Kingdom, one of Plitiral's many Kingdoms."

"Mushroom Kingdom?" asked Mandy, she then looked towards the window. "I'm definitely far from home… I wonder if I'm the only one here?"

"We didn't see anyone else near you." Mario responded. "We kept a very close eye on the surrounding waters but you were the only one we could find."

"I see…"

Mario smiled and nodded. "Well… don't worry, I'm sure we'll find them. What's your name anyway?"

"Mandy."

"Well, nice to meet you." said Mario, he then walked up to the cupboard and took out a pair of plain black shoes, long blue socks and a black headband. "This headband was the only thing that survived whatever you went through, anyway, please put these on."

Mario threw the stuff onto the bed, Mandy then sat on it and began to put them on "Thanks."

"Any time." said Mario "But I'm afraid you must do something for me."

"What?" asked Mandy as she finished putting on the socks. "I don't normally do any favours."

"Well… you're far from home." said Mario. "Plus the Mushroom Kingdom can be dangerous, especially to newcomers like you. I'm gonna need you to accompany me until we can find a way to get you home, there really isn't anyone else that can take care of you. My only regret is that I'm on a mission which might be dangerous as well, I don't want to bring a young girl like you into the face of danger."

Mandy was silent at first, but then nodded "Fine." she then finished putting her shoes and headband on. "Don't really have a choice anyway?"

"Sorry to do this to you."

"Its fine." said Mandy as she stood up and punched her fists together "I like a good fight."

Mario was silent, but then he let out a small smirk. "Alright, we'll be arriving in about an hour… But would you mind telling me exactly what happened?"

"Like I said, it's a long story."

"I'm fine with that, if there are more of you out there, then I'll need to know just about everything."


	9. 1-2:Super Human Super Mario

Mandy had explained everything to Mario, how she was on a field trip, the stolen Nightmare Ruby, and how she, Grim and the other kids were on a dimensional crossing train before it exploded during a fight against Boogey and Scythe 2.0. She explained thoroughly on how dangerous the Nightmare Ruby was and what it did to Boogey.

Mario had then explained what he was doing and what Mandy was unfortunately dragged into. A Princess by the name of Peach Toadstool, had requested Mario to meet her in Rogueport to join her in a treasure hunt, Mario even had an oddly drawn map to show for it. Mandy examined it, but all it had was set pieces, no details, no clues or anything. She felt a little suspicious on the legitimacy of it, but considering it was all they had to go with, other than a destination. She hardly felt the need to complain.

Soon enough the two made it to the harbour of Rogueport, Mandy and Mario walked up to the small bridge the boat left out for them. "Sorry for the delay there, bit of a rough weather and whatnot." Said the Captain whom was on the other side of a window, Mandy could hardly see him. "Are you sure you wanna depart here, sir? I did mention of all the hoodlums and trouble makers, didn't I?"

"Of course, a Princess is waiting for me here, and I'm not one to deny such a request." Mario replied with confidence as he tipped his hat slightly.

"A Princess? I… see. Well if you're certain, I won't delay you any longer, you just be careful you two."

The two watched as the boat left, they then turned to the harbour and looked around. Mandy herself took notice of the civilians of this world what she saw were round creatures in sailor-like clothing, stubby feet and wind-up handles on their backs. But there were also strange short human-like creatures with no legs, only feet and had large white hats with coloured polka dots on them, one had red, another had blue and one had green and so on, with their heads with the strange hats, it made them look like mushrooms with bodies wearing sailor-like clothing as well, this wasn't too much of a surprise since they were at the harbour so it was likely the citizen wore sailor clothing here.

"Ahoy laddie and lassie!" said a strange sounding voice, Mario and Mandy turned to their sides to see one of the round creatures, but was a bigger verity with dark purple colouring, with two large brown boots for feet, it had beady white eyes with one of them covered by an eye patch and a yellow and purple bandanna, it also had a set of bones on its back looking like a wind-up handle, "Welcome to Rogueport, we don't often get humans 'round these parts."

"Yeah, it's our first time here." Mario responded. "I'm Mario, and this is Mandy."

"So… what exactly are you?" Mandy asked.

"Ain't seen a Bob-Omb before have ye? No matter, the names Pa-Patch!" he said, "Where are ye from?"

"We're from the central part of the Mushroom Kingdom. Toad Town specifically." Mario responded. "Mandy here is also looking for her friends who got separated, have you seen any other humans like us?"

"Well about a day ago I saw a beautiful lass in a pink dress with an old Toad following her around, but I ain't seen her since." Pa-Patch replied.

"I see, thanks for your help."

"EEEK! GET AWAY FROM ME YOU FREAK!" shouted a teenage girl's voice, running down the set of stairs and ran to the centre of the harbour was a strange mushroom shaped creature just a little shorter than Mandy with big feet, large blue eyes, big eyebrows and eyelashes, pink blushes on her cheeks. She wore what looked like a yellowish-greyish outfit with a red tie and a large explorers helmet with a light on it and a long golden ponytail hairstyle, that reached to the back of her feet.

But next to this mushroom girl was someone who looked very familiar, it was a young boy wearing a black jacket under a school uniform, he wore thick glasses with green lenses. Mandy's eyes widened slightly, it was Nergal Junior.

As they reached the centre of the harbour, three goons slightly bigger than Junior who had been chasing them had also arrived looking as if they cornered them. Two of the goons wore red bodysuits with strange white masks under blue goggles and had large black Xs on their chest, the middle one was much larger and rounder, 6.5ft to be exact, he wore a black and purple body suit with a purple horned mask under darker blue goggles, a red spiked cape and black curved shoes, their appearances caused every other citizen to back off to the walls and watch looking nervous, except for Mario and Mandy who began to walk closer to the scene.

Junior actually looked a bit weakened, but it didn't stop him from throwing two of his tentacles out towards the bigger goon. From how Mandy was seeing it however, the tentacles moved much slower compared to what he had done against Boogey. And because they were moving slower, the two smaller goons reacted on time and caught each of them, while the larger one charged forward with his head down like a bull. And because Junior's tentacles were holding him down, he suffered a full body blow from the larger goon's charge and was sent flying after the smaller goons let go. Junior hit the wall hard causing it to crack in places and he fell unconscious.

The bigger goon laughed loudly as the mushroom girl stepped backwards in fear. "Man! That kid is something, but he ain't got nothing on me!" He then turned to the smaller goons. "Alright boys, we're taking this little Firebrand back to our fortress!"

"And the tentacle boy?" asked one of the goons.

"Leave that loser. He's got good tricks but he ain't worth the hassle."

"At once Lord Crump!"

"Back away!" the larger goon named Crump turned around and the moment he did, he was struck in the face with a strong punch from Mario, Crump was forced back by about ten feet, only being stopped by the smaller goons who caught him.

Mario stepped forward preparing his fists while the mushroom girl ran back to Junior, whom Mandy walked up to.

"That was a cheap shot ya jerk!" Crump shouted as he rubbed his left cheek.

"You shouldn't go bullying kids like that." Mario replied with a fierce tone to him. "Now beat it!"

"Oh, I'm SO SCARED!" Crump said sarcastically. "Whattaya gonna do!? Hit me with that big stupid hammer of yer's!? I'm quaking in my boots!"

"I don't even need my hammer to KO you, you giant talking egg." Mario responded. "If anything, I'd rather not dent it on your big stupid thick skull!"

Crump immediately got furious and stamped his foot. "Why you! No one smack talks Lord Crump and gets away with it! I think it's time for you to get a taste of the ol' CRUMP-A-BOMB!"

Lord Crump charged forward, much faster than last time, but instead of dodging, Mario planted his feet down firmly and caught Crump by the horns and was pushed back by about five feet before stopping completely. Mario then thrusts his right knee directly into Crumps face sending him up slightly, then Mario did a 360-turn throwing Crump into the two goons sending them all into the wall at the back. Crump quickly recovered and jumped up high trying to land on Mario, but he quickly dodged and threw a spinning kick into his face sending him back a few feet, then he tried to throw a punch into Crump, but he quickly caught it and tried to throw one back, but Mario dodged, quickly grabbed the arm that was holding Mario's hand, spun and threw Crump over his shoulder and landing on his back.

Before Crump could get up, Mario quickly grabbed his horns again and began to spin rapidly, going faster with each spin, he then threw Crump high up into the air, and while Crump began to scream and flail around while falling back down, Mario bent his knees down and looked to have been building up power. Mandy and the mushroom girl both looked surprised, wondering what he was gonna do. Just as Crump almost hit the ground, Mario quickly jumped back and threw both his feet into Crump's back, rocketing him back into the wall smashing through it leaving only a large cloud of dust where he was.

Mario let out a sigh as he turned back to Mandy and the mushroom girl, Mandy had Junior over her shoulder who only just began to regain consciousness. Mario dug into his overalls and took out a small treasure chest no bigger than his thumb, then in seconds it quickly grew larger, Mario opened it with his free hand, dug into it and took out what looked like a red mushroom with white polka dots on it. The treasure chest then closed itself and shrunk back down.

Mario handed the mushroom to Junior as he placed the size changing treasure chest back into his overalls. "Here, open wide." Junior opened his mouth wide and he placed the mushroom in. After eating it, Junior suddenly got a jolt of energy as his wounds quickly disappeared, he then stood up properly looking at himself.

"Wow, I feel good as new." He then turned to Mandy, taking notice of her new outfit. "Mandy? What happened to you?"

"Long story, I'll explain later."

"Urgh!" The four quickly turned around to see Lord Crump climbing out of the hole he went through as the two smaller goons kept him supported, but he then pushed them back and moved forward himself. "Ok, you got a couple good shots in I'll give you that. But unfortunately for you, that means… IT'S GO TIME!"

There was a sudden rumble and in seconds, Mandy, Mario, Junior and the mushroom girl were all surrounded by hundreds upon hundreds of smaller goons that came out of nowhere. "Well crud!" exclaimed the mushroom girl.

"PUNISH THEM!" Crump screamed, and the smaller goons suddenly jumped up and began attacking the four in a giant pile of jumping goons.

But little did they know, they were all missing, as the four quickly snuck from the crowd. "Let's get outta here." The mushroom girl said.

"With pleasure." Junior replied as all four of them quickly ran up the stairs and further into the town.

A few seconds of the army attacking the same area. "BUH-HUH!?" Crump exclaimed. "STOOOOP!" soon the entire army stopped and realised the four they were attacking were gone, Crump looked around quickly. "Where did they go!? You, Johnson! Did you see them, d-did anyone!?" All of them tilted their heads to the side having no idea where they went. Crump growled furiously. "Urgh! Crud! They bolted!"


	10. 1-3:Situations

The four were in the town-square of Rogueport, it looked very old with broken in buildings and trash and scum in the corners and walls, dust and dirt on the ground and everyone wore old torn clothing, this town fit's the name perfectly. Several people walked around, but none were human, some were the mushroom like people named Toads, more mushroom shaped people called Goombas, short dog-like folks called Doogans and even strange faced men in blue robes named Bandits, thanks to the Goomba girl named Goombella to inform Mandy and Junior of these races after a quick introduction between everyone, she even went on and said that humans are an incredibly rare race to see in this kingdom.

Mario was sitting on the deck of a hangman in the centre of the town square who had just finished listening to Junior's story as to how we woke up suddenly here and where he met Goombella and agreed to help her with her job, and how he tried to defend her from Lord Crump and his goons but was still weakened from the battle against Boogey.

Junior also explained about the kids and the Grim Reaper with his capability to warp through dimensions and how they all got scattered. Mario simply sat hunched forward with his right hand rubbing his chin as he began to process all the information

"And that's everything Mr. Mario." said Junior.

"I see." said Mario. "Well I don't know anything about Earth or what it's like, and I really have no idea how you're gonna get back without your Grim friend. And unfortunately, I can't help as much as I want to, as I have official business."

"So, are you on some sort of quest?" Junior asked.

"Yeah." Mario nodded as he jumped off the hangman. "I came to Rogueport because Princess Peach asked me to help find a supposed treasure in this place, besides your friends might be around here too, so I doubt you'd want to leave without them, right?"

"Well yeah." Junior nodded. "They don't have powers besides Grim and Irwin, despite not being best friends with them, I'd feel bad if something happened to them."

"Wait a minute." interrupted Goombella. "Ok, I know saving these kids is important, but, you said you're looking for treasure, too right? Are you referring to the ancient legendary treasure?"

"I think so." Mario responded as he scratched the back of his head. "I don't know much about this legend, to me this just feels like a simple game of pirates, at least until you added the word 'legendary' to the treasure." He then dug into his pocket and took out the same map he showed Mandy earlier and opened it up for the others to see. "Peach sent me this map saying it would lead me to the treasure, but I can't make heads-or-tails of it, in fact it actually looks like some strange artwork than a map to me, and I'm good at reading maps."

"B-but… this is the legendary Magical Map!" Goombella exclaimed. "It's said to have been lost for centuries!"

"Great Hoggly Boggly! If it isn't Master Mario!" The four looked to see a very old toad with a white moustache, brown spots on his cap, a purple sweater over a creamy coloured shirt and a cane with a mushroom head ornament on it.

"Toadsworth?" said Mario as he placed the map back into his pocket and walked up to the old Toad, leaving Mandy, Junior and Goombella behind as he spoke with Toadsworth.

"While I am worried for the others, I do kinda like the idea of hunting for treasure." Junior said looking a little excited this time. "I remember Dad telling me a few stories of how his ancestors tried to hunt for treasure… before getting trapped in the centre of the earth."

"Like we have a choice?" Mandy shrugged. "We have no idea where we are, and without Grim to send us home, we're stuck here. So, like it or not, we're gonna have to stick with Mario until we can get home."

"And the others?" Junior asked.

"If we come across them, then I suppose." Said Mandy bluntly.

Junior scoffed a little. "You know if it wasn't for us, then you would've been with Boogey and heck knows what his plans were."

"I could've gotten out of that situation myself."

"If you say so." Mandy glared at Junior for that remark.

"Well… in any case." Goombella spoke up, trying to change the subject. "If the legend is true, that Magical Map of his will guide us to the legendary treasure. Plus, Mario does have a habit of helping others along the way of his main quests."

"Anyway Goombella, this Mario guy, what do you make of him?" Junior asked.

"Well I'll confess he isn't much to look like, his voice is a bit cheesy at times, and he could probably cut back on the Italian food. But you saw the punishment he brought to that Freak of the Week, and I don't even think he was trying there. I've heard hundreds of stories on how he's travelled across the world, taking down bad guys big and small. His most known stories are how he's saved Princess Peach from the clutches of the biggest bad of all, Bowser!"

"Sounds like a real Superman." Junior responded while shrugging his shoulders.

"Yeah, well I've never met him until now, so I'm not 100% sure what he's actually gonna be like in person, but I'm eager to see."

Soon Mario had walked back to the kids as they saw Toadsworth walking towards the local inn. "Ok, here's the story. Princess Peach who had sent me the map has disappeared, I bet my moustache she was kidnapped by someone, so I'm kinda stuck here until I can find someone to help decipher this stupid map of mine or at least tell me of this treasure. Because I'm willing to bet that whoever kidnapped Peach might be after the map, assuming it isn't Bowser who kidnapped her."

"Well… if it's alright with you, I would like to join you." said Junior.

"And you're in luck Mario." said Goombella jumping for joy. "I'm researching the legendary treasure too so I can help you."

"I had a feeling you two would want to join me." said Mario looking concerned, "But are you sure you wanna join in, I mean it will most likely be dangerous."

Junior stepped forward. "I need to find the others and get home, so I'm definitely in no matter what. I can hold my own, I may look normal, but I've got a ton of powers."

Goombella then stepped forward too. "And don't worry about me, I may look cute but I'm one tough girl. Besides, with my knowledge on history and archaeology, I can so help you out."

"Well alright then." Mario replied as he took out his map. "So Goombella, any idea where we should go, you've been here longer than I have so I'm guessing you know something right?"

"I do." said Goombella. "But not everything, but I do have an old college professor who's also studying the legendary treasure, I could explain what I know, but with him around you might get to know everything besides what I know, I only got here myself to be honest"

"Alright, any idea where your professor might be?" asked Mario.

"I HAVE heard he's somewhere in the eastern areas of Rogueport." said Goombella. "That would be our best bet to look first"

"Then let's go find your professor, Goombella!" said Junior, soon he and the others began to walk towards the east side of town.

Mandy began to delve into her thoughts, looking down at her red dress given to her by Mario. She wondered to herself, if it wasn't for the other kids helping her, could she have saved herself, especially when Boogey's Nightmare Form was introduced to her? In addition, Mario saved her from possibly drowning, and seemed to have easily understood her personality and abilities, which is why he asked her to join in on his adventure and not leave her someplace safe. She felt a twitch, having others rescue her and Mario seemingly understanding her much easier than anyone else ever could. She felt odd about this feeling.

She eventually however, shook those thoughts away, all she cared about was going home, not caring about the others, just herself, it's how it's always been.


	11. 1-4:Professor Frankly

The gang eventually found Goombella's old college professor, he too was a Goomba, though in his mid-fifties, he had large blue glasses and white hair at the sides of his head and wore a small lab coat, he was quickly introduced as Professor Frankly, a college professor at the University of Goom and was a former teacher of archaeologist known as Professor Kolorado, neither Junior or Mandy knew who this was but the name rang a bell from Mario's mind, but kept silent, letting Goombella do the talking.

"So, you tykes wanna know about the legendary treasure that's below Rogueport correct?" asked Frankly. "While I AM studying that very subject, most say its little more than a fairy tale, don't you?"

"That's true Professor Frankly." Goombella confidently replied. "But most archaeologists and historians have searched for truths in those fairy tales you know, and I believe the treasure below Rogueport does exist! And I really wanna find it!"

"Good point! And well made!" said Frankly, admiring Goombella's enthusiasm. "In that case I'll cooperate with you however I can, now first of all, there are many mysteries surrounding it. Some say it's an infinite vast treasure hoard while others say it's a magical item, others say it's actually a monster while others claim it's an empty chest. So many different theories, obviously it's hard to define the truth among them, but all agree on one point, to get to the treasure, one must have… The Crystal Stars!"

"To find the treasure of yore, take the seven Crystal Stars to The Thousand-Year Door. You mean the Crystal Stars in that old saying that super elderly people pass down?" asked Goombella.

"Indeed, that same saying." Frankly responded. "If you want to find the treasure, you must find the seven Crystal Stars."

Goombella continued. "Hold the Magical Map aloft the entrance to the Thousand-Year Door and the stars will light the way that leads to the stones of yesterday! Yeah, a lot of lore I've read says that if you take the Magical Map to the Thousand-Year Door, then it will show you the location of the Crystal Stars."

 _"Magical Map? Crystal Stars? Thousand-Year Door? This is definitely not your average treasure hunt, whatever's behind that door must be BIG!"_ thought Mario as a flare began to develop in his eyes, a burning passion for adventure and discovery.

"Indeed but…" Frankly sighed. "That one missing piece of the puzzle - The Magical Map - is missing, it's been missing for centuries, and no one has found a trace of its whereabouts since then."

"But Professor, we actually do have the map, well not we, Mario has it." said Goombella directing her head to Mario.

"WUH-WHAAT?" screamed Frankly as he jumped into the air surprising everyone. "I… A-ARE YOU SERIOUS? C-COULD I TAKE A LOOK?" Mario dug into his pocket and took out the map and shown it to Frankly "ASTOUNDING! THIS IS IT! THE ONE AND ONLY MAGICAL MAP LOST IN THE SANDS OF TIME! YOU SIR ARE AMAZING! INCREDIBLE! WONDERFUL EVEN!"

"How's about taking a deep breath Prof." asked Mario with an embarrassed yet amused smile. Soon Professor Frankly began to calm down as Mario returned the map into his pocket

"Quite an eccentric old man wouldn't you say." Junior whispered to Mandy.

"Eh." Mandy replied with very little interest.

"Well… with this map, we can find the Crystal Stars by taking this to the Thousand-Year Door!" said Frankly.

"Great! Any idea where it might be?" asked Mario.

"It must be somewhere in the old ruins of Rogueport deep underground, there's a Warp Pipe that leads there not far from my house." said Frankly. "Let's go!"

Soon the team of five exited Frankly's House, and there on the other side of the dusty road was a large green pipe sticking out of the ground, looking large enough for anyone to jump down with ease.

The team crossed the road and reached the Warp Pipe, where Frankly took a moment to look at it, "Warp Pipes, can take one so far and yet so near, altering gravity inside its mysterious walls enabling anyone to travel up a 100ft pipe from underground and back again, near and far, these blessed pipes are the source of easy travel and one of the biggest mysteries on how they work."

"Poetic." Junior said shrugging his shoulders.

"Oh, that reminds me." said Frankly "Odds are there will be quite a few hoodlums below so keep your guard up. I have no doubts about you or Goombella having trouble down below, but what about you Junior and Mandy."

Trust me, whatever 'hoodlums' come down here, I'll make sure they suffer." Said Mandy.

"And I can shapeshift and use my whole body as a weapon." Junior responded with a confident tone.

"Besides, with Mario we might not even have to worry." said Goombella looking smug.

"I wouldn't be so sure Goombella." Mario responded. "I do attract as lot of danger, while I can fend for myself, I have failed defending others sometimes, none the less we shouldn't have too much trouble down below."

"Alright then, let's get going." Said Junior as he then immediately jumped down the Warp Pipe making a slight 'Dow, Dow, Dow' sound, Mandy soon followed, Mario waited for Goombella and Frankly to jump down first and then he jumped down soon after.


	12. 1-5:Underground Ruins

The ruins below Rogueport were made of grey stone, with many shattered pillars and statues around the area like a complete and total wasteland, but there were quite a few citizens who had inhabited these ruins and built houses and shops and had made a rough but prosperous life under the city itself, this was still a part of Rogueport and still followed what little laws it had, but it looked completely different from the above ground city, even the citizens did as well, though they were the same races from above, they had adapted to the underground conditions with paler skin and rougher looks.

"To think even after this city was wasted, people still made this place their home." said Frankly with a fascinated tone to him.

"The people of this town have to be respected for that." Mario responded. "Making use of what was once destroyed."

West of where the Warp Pipe took them was the new underground city, everywhere else in the East were ruins, and that was where they really wanted to go to, as according to the townsfolk from above and below, no signs of the Thousand-Year Door has ever been seen, which made the gang assume the Door was somewhere in the eastern area where no one but thugs and hoodlums resided, so the gang took themselves from the somewhat safer areas of the western ruins to the more dangerous lawless areas of the eastern ruins. Despite being underground it was quite bright and easy to see, thanks to the street lamps and floor lights all over the ruins. No one knows who put them there, but they know they weren't part of the ruins as they were all somewhat new compared to the dusty rotten walls, floors and ceiling of the ruins and it was obvious street lights weren't around a thousand years ago

We find the gang walking through the eastern area, Mario held his hammer on his shoulder as a sign to anyone saying he 'means business and is not to be taken lightly' this had worked as quite a few of the Goomba thugs kept their distances, some wore strange green helmets with a large spike on them while some actually had wings on their backs, every time Goombella saw one of these winged Goombas known as ParaGoombas, she let out a quiet sigh of envy.

"So, Mario." said Junior breaking the eerie silence. "Are there other humans on your planet?"

"Yes. Most of them are inhabitants of the Metro Kingdom with few exceptions. I was born and raised in the Mushroom Kingdom, but I moved to the Metro Kingdom during my college years. I ended up going back after the first attack King Bowser did. Honestly, I wanted to stay in the Metro Kingdom, but certain difficulties sort of happened and… well lets just leave it at that."

"Oh, that's kinda cool. Although I am curious about this difficulty." said Junior.

"I may explain it some other time, but right now I'm not comfortable with it." said Mario. "As for you Mandy?"

"What?" she asked bluntly.

"This whole Grim Reaper thing. How did you get in goods with him?"

"He's actually my slave, we played a game and he lost. Plain and simple. His power is mine and no one else's. But that Bone-Head is so weak without me. Him and Billy always seem to get into major trouble and I have to get them out of it."

Junior, Frankly and Goombella remained behind Mario and Mandy. Goombella steadily walked up to Junior and whispered. "Hey, this Mandy. Can we trust her?"

"Truth be told, I don't know. She's strong and smart, but I swear she's the evillest girl in our world." Junior whispered back.

"Is there anything nice about her?"

"Don't think so. It also doesn't help that she never appreciates what anyone does for her and treats others like slaves or idiots."

"Damn… hey… call me crazy, but… with how close Mandy is to Mario, do you think she's got something for him?"

"Probably a knife to his back should the opportunity arise."

Soon the gang stopped as they saw a Warp Pipe over a long ledge, it looked as if no one could make the jump, but that was proven wrong as Mario quickly jumped over that ledge making it over to the Warp Pipe

"Well that's pretty cool and all." said Junior "But how do we get across?"

"Can you make a bridge using your tentacles?" asked Goombella.

Junior thought about it, and then he turned around and shot ten tentacles out of his back and placed them over the gap acting like a bridge. Mandy walked across it without even acknowledging him, while Goombella and Frankly thanked him as they crossed. Mario then grabbed the tentacles and Junior pulled himself to him. Soon the gang jumped into the Warp Pipe going even deeper underground

The ruins got a bit darker, while there were still street lamps and floor lights around, there were less of them, as if whoever set them up had cared a little less about this area, that or less people came down here so there wasn't any need to add lights to areas where no one goes, either way since it was a little darker here, the gang were a bit wearier despite still being bright enough to see.

"If the Thousand-Year Door is yet to be discovered, then the darker the area we go to, the higher chance we may have of finding it." said Frankly.

"How can we find it if it gets darker?" asked Junior.

"Easy." Goombella then turned on the light on her helmet. Shining the way.

"Be sure to turn it off when I say so, we don't want to attract unwanted attention." Mario said as he clutched onto his hammer a bit tighter.

Soon the gang continued along the corridor being a bit more cautious, to their left was solid concrete while to their right was metal bars like they once belonged to a gate or fence of sorts. Soon finding a huge flight of stairs, they slowly took their time stepping down them and soon found themselves going the opposite direction along the lower floor going past the stairs, this time with a wall on their right and a river of water on their left going downstream.

"Water from the harbour must come down here." said Goombella "This place has so many amazing sights that historians would LOVE to explore and observe, that is if we weren't already on a mission."

"Indeed, let's try and find the Thousand-Year Door before doing anything else." said Frankly.

The rest of the gang agreed as they continued their walk along the somewhat dark corridor. Soon they found themselves at an opening in the wall where two large yellow blocks blocked their way, but Mario swung his hammer vertically on each block smashing them to pieces, there hidden in the opening was another Warp Pipe, which the gang immediately jumped into.

As they slid down the pipe. "How long do you think it'll be until we find the Door?" asked Junior.

"Who knows. No one has discovered it yet, we might not even be able to discover it ourselves." said Frankly.

"Did anyone even TRY to discover it?" asked Mario. "Because this seems pretty much like a straight line."

"Probably not, could it be that so many people disbelieve it so much that they have not even bothered to attempt to prove it?" asked Frankly.

"At least we get the glory of discovering something monumental that's a thousand years old." said Goombella, with the others agreeing.

The next floor was even darker than before, while still having street lamps and floor lights, there were only about five or six spread out, giving off the shapes of the large area. Being mostly a wide-open land with two large stone lands making it as if this lower area was like a pit or the other sections of the area shot upwards when this place fell in ruins.

On the left higher ground was a set of stairs going up to it, and on that higher ground was a large stuck out platform, looking a bit like a broken bridge. The gang slowly walked up the stairs to the left higher ground, there wasn't much here apart from broken pieces of what looked like statues and fountains, but on the right higher ground on the other side was a large opening like a door used to be there, but with the bridge out it looked like it would be difficult to get across, but it really wasn't as Junior soon created an even bigger bridge with his tentacles and the gang soon walked across it, but was more cautious this time as it was higher up and a longer way. They then passed through the door to the next area.

This area was near pitch black, there were no street lamps or floor lights at all, but the shape of the area was viewable thanks to the lights from the previous rooms. The area looked pretty plain apart from a large pedestal like object in the centre, that pedestal also had a smaller one in the middle of the larger one.

But what got their attention the most was a giant red door on the wall with several golden curved lines all over the door making a sort of floral diamond pattern, the lines also made seven large star shapes, three on each side and one on the top middle. The door had an eerie feel to it, it was in plain sight and even gave off a strange light which made it visible while the entire area was in darkness, and the light of it never brightened anything else, almost as if the door was actually preventing its light from going anywhere else, what made it stranger was that it looked polished and clean, almost like it was brand new compared to everything else around here which looked ancient and ruined, everyone simply stared at the door for what felt like hours but was actually minutes until Professor Frankly spoke up.

"I… I don't believe it." said an excited and yet scared Frankly. "T-This must be the Thousand-Year Door! Real as life!"

"It… it looks like its… disobeying the laws of time and space." muttered Goombella. "It's brightened up, looks brand new and everything and yet, it's been here for a thousand years."

"Maybe either no one bothered to discover it… or no one wanted to believe what they saw." said Mario. "We can see it in plain sight, but our minds seem to beg us to not believe it truly exists."

"D-Do we really want to go down there?" muttered Junior

"I… I don't know." muttered Mandy.

Soon Mario took one step, but actually felt hesitant, but soon he began to walk towards the door, stopping at the pedestal, just one step would take him up onto the pedestal, but didn't do it yet. Soon the others had followed him towards it.

"What do you suppose this pedestal is for?" muttered Goombella.

No one answered, instead Mario finally took one step up onto the pedestal and slowly walked towards the higher pedestal, everyone leaned forward slightly in anticipation.

The second Mario stood onto the pedestal, there was a sudden flash of light surprising everyone as the entire room lit up instantly, becoming brighter than the first area of the ruins, soon the entire pedestals began to glow a radiant blue shining around Mario and making seven blue circles of light on the edges of the larger pedestal. Then to their shock, the Magical Map quickly flew out of Mario's back pocket and unfolded by itself, and soon a huge blue light shot from the ceiling struck the map making a huge blue blinding light which engulfed the entire area

The light died down slowly, but the entire area remained somewhat bright, the map fluttered down into Mario's hands, surprising him seeing a new thing added to the map, it was a strange grey castle in the top right area on the hills. Everyone else ran up to Mario looking concerned.

"A-Are you ok Mario?" asked Goombella.

"I'm fine" said Mario "But the map… its… changed." The gang looked at the map seeing the changes on it, it actually became readable somehow.

"What was with all those crazy lights?" asked Goombella.

"I'm not sure." said Frankly, "Lets head back to my house so I can study it better."

Everyone agreed and slowly made their way off the pedestal and back through the opening to head back to the aboveground.


	13. 1-6:The Adventure Begins

Back in Frankly's home; Mario, Junior, Mandy and Goombella all watched Frankly as he examined the Magical Map and its new content. "Amazing!" he said, "The map now has a radar like function, it looks like the map is leading straight to Petal Meadows."

"Petal Meadows?" asked Goombella.

"I had my suspicions about that place to be honest." said Frankly "Its name appeared many times in my research, I heard it's a very peaceful place that mostly consists of Toads and Koopas, and maybe a few other races. Either way it's your first destination to head to."

"Ok, so any idea how to get to it?" asked Mario.

"According to my research, there's a Warp Pipe in the underground ruins somewhere in the eastern areas. Pipe Travels efficient." said Frankly. He soon picked up the map -somehow- and gave it to Mario who then placed the map into his pocket. "By the way, I'm curious, where DID you get the map anyway?"

"Princess Peach sent me it with a letter asking me to come here" said Mario.

"Is she blonde with a pink dress and a crown?" asked Frankly, Mario simply nodded. "I see, she actually visited me the other day asking about the treasure, I told her about my suspicions of Petal Meadows and she mentioned about heading there."

"By the way Professor." said Goombella. "I think I must tell you, earlier today a bunch of shady cloaked goons were asking around about the Crystal Stars too."

"Hmm, I doubt the Princess would have anything to do with them." said Frankly. "But none the less, if she did indeed go to Petal Meadows, then you must not hesitate in going there to meet up with her."

"Yeah! So where IS the first Crystal Star exactly?" asked Mario.

"The map doesn't specify." said Frankly "It only shows the area they would be in, you're on your own in finding it."

"So, you're not coming with us?" asked Junior.

"An old Goomba like me would never handle the difficult trials of the road ahead, I'd only slow you down." said Frankly. "But I will help you any way I can when you come back here, I wish you the best of luck in finding the Crystal Stars."

"You got it Frankly!" said Goombella. "We better get going now!"

"Oh wait!" said Frankly. "This might be useful to you."

Frankly soon walked to a drawer and opened it, he took out a small item and threw it to Mario who caught it easily, he then looked at it seeing it was what looked to be a small human-like doll wearing a black helmet and overalls and a white shirt. "T-This is a Hammer Suit!" Mario exclaimed. "These are not easy to find."

"As a skilled adventurer like you, no doubt you'll make use of that Power-Up." Said Frankly. "I'll even try and see if I can get more while you're gone."

"Thanks!" Mario took out the tiny treasure chest, it grew again and he placed the Hammer Suit in and put it away.

"What is that exactly?" Mandy asked.

"It's a device E-Gadd gave me, he said a lot of complicated stuff but it basically is a Treasure Chest that can hold a ton of stuff and not take up space. As someone who loves to use Power-Ups, this helps a lot."

"So, what are Power-Ups?" Junior asked.

"I'll explain on the way." Mario responded. With that, after saying their quick goodbyes, the gang left Frankly's house and made their way to the same Warp Pipe to the underground ruins to find the Warp Pipe leading to Petal Meadows, to hopefully find the Crystal Star, Princess Peach, and possibly the other Endsville kids and Grim. This was the start of a huge adventure.

* * *

In a super high-tech laboratory, there was a tall slim figure lying on a bed who looked quite injured and had a few bandages over his face and even had a large bandage over his right eye like an eye patch, he only wore a full white bodysuit. The figure was Boogey himself who quietly chuckled in his sleep muttering the words "Nightmare" over and over again, that was until he heard a loud singular 'beep' causing him to slowly wake up.

Boogey then sat up looking at his surroundings, and then he looked at his bandages. He slowly sighed as he got out of the bed feeling the cold metallic flooring on his bare feet and looked at the door straight ahead as it opened making a bright light, but Boogey did not hesitate when walking through it into a new room where there was a lone chair next to a table with a mug of coffee and a plate with eight bite-size cookies on it. Boogey simply sat at the chair and took a quick sip of the coffee until a screen appeared on the wall in front of him revealing a strange roundish figure with a dome-like head and two blue glass like eyes piercing at him.

"Good morning." said the figure with a deep eerie voice. "Was the mission a success?"

"Successful, but not without its problems." said Boogey and then he ate one of the cookies.

"I noticed." said the figure. "Your train is severely damaged, and your crew has scattered all across my world. Some of my men are repairing it as we speak, with the help of Creeper of course, but I cannot have them work on it for too long, it's taking too much time on the other tasks I have sent them to do, and it doesn't help that this Scythe 2.0 you brought with you has gone missing with half your crew."

"It's probably searching for me as we speak, it's not familiar with this world at all." said Boogey. "And what about MY machines, have they become useful to you?"

"All too useful! They're not perfect in finding them, especially when other magical items or users are about, but thanks to you we were able to find a Crystal Star, and we learned the location of two more."

"Good, now we just have one more problem." said Boogey as he ate another cookie. "Some kids who're not part of the plan got into the Mushroom Kingdom as well as the one you requested to bring here, and while they may not pose as much of a threat, I'm going to order my comrades to eliminate the kids on sight."

"I trust your words, but you know of the one main issue?" asked the figure.

"Of course. It doesn't need to be explained. Although … I lost the Nightmare Ruby."

"On the contrary." Suddenly a blue light shot down from the ceiling and materialized the Nightmare Ruby onto the desk, surprising Boogey. "It landed not far from the Boggly Woods, so I had my men deliver it. You'll make better use of it than me. Now get rested up and give your comrades the orders, and until then standby for my orders. Understood?"

Boogey gently picked up the Nightmare Ruby with a sinister smirk. "Understood."


	14. 2-1:Petal Meadows

Mario quickly explained the Power-Ups, basically they're magical items that give people costumes and special powers, they can be found in floating Item Blocks, Mario's shape shifting treasure chest has quite a few items already in them but he's saving them for emergencies.

After walking through the eastern part of the ruins once more, they found another entrance not far from the first underground Warp Pipe they took to find the Thousand-Year Door. As the gang entered it, they found themselves at a ledge full of water with a wooden bridge leading to a small stone island with another Warp Pipe on it. Soon the gang lightly walk along the wooden bridge making it to the small stone island and they quickly jumped down the Warp Pipe.

"I'm coming for you Princess Peach!" said Mario excitedly.

The Warp Pipe had taken them to a completely different area almost instantaneously. From the ruins of the underground cities of Rogueport to a vast field of grass and trees far and wide; Mario and Goombella were at front near the edge of part of a grassy hill the Warp Pipe was on looking ahead, Junior was looking around at the green beauty in amazement, but Mandy on the other hand felt disgusted by this scenery, too cutesy and nice for her liking. Soon their eyes caught something in the distance, it was a huge old looking castle, it looked like the one on the Magical Map.

"Mario look!" said Junior. "That castle over there!"

Mario and Goombella looked at the castle in the distance. "That must be where the Crystal Star is." said Mario.

"But how do we get there?" asked Goombella. While it looked straight forward, there was actually a giant chasm blocking the way to the castle.

"Wow, what a drop." Junior muttered looking straight down. "I could make a bridge again using my tentacles, but I'm not sure if I can reach that far.

"Even then, I'm not sure I'd want to cross a bridge over a chasm like this." Mandy replied.

"I only have two Raccoon Leaves so I can't have everyone fly over." Mario added, making Mandy and Junior confused about flying raccoons. Mario soon turned back around to look at the fields, soon something caught his eye. "Over there! There's a village in the distance, maybe someone there might be able to help us."

The others agreed and was about to make their way to the village, but the second they took a single step. There was a sudden monstrous roar coming from the sky, everyone looked up to see a gigantic object flying over them blocking out the sun, as the object flew over towards the castle, they realised the object was in fact a giant red dragon with a long neck and teeny tiny wings carrying it, it flew across the chasm and into the tallest window of the castle fitting through it perfectly, simply showing the castle was much bigger than they thought.

"What the heck was THAT?" asked Junior.

"A dragon?" muttered Mandy.

"I remember Frankly saying he had his suspicions about the place, but he never mentioned a giant friggin dragon!" said Goombella freaking out a little.

"We better tread lightly." said Mario. "Odds are that thing isn't friendly, and I'm guessing that village up ahead is no stranger to that thing."

Everyone agreed and began to walk down the grassy hill and into a gravel-like area with three stones in a line, two smaller ones and one shaped like a big Warp Pipe, the smaller one on the left had a moon shape engraved into it whereas the right one had a sun shape engraved into it. After a quick silent examination, the gang continued their walk towards the village.

A little later going through a series of trees, Mario suddenly stopped as something hard fell onto his head, he looked down to see it was an apple core, Mario looked up at the tree, only to have another apple core smack him on his big nose, Mario then looked up again looking a bit irritated that time. The others then looked behind them to see Mario had stopped, they then walk back to him to see what Mario was doing.

"Something's up there." Mario muttered to himself, he then took out his hammer and quickly swung it at the side of the tree which actually made the tree swing from side to side. Suddenly there was a girly scream as a fat blur fell from the tree landing directly on Junior. It was a familiar looking fat kid with a white vest and a red woolly hat.

"Sperg?" Junior exclaimed as he pushed him off. Mario soon placed his hands under Sperg arms and slowly picked him up off Junior and placed him on his feet.

"Ow my head." Sperg muttered until she looked around noticing who was next to him. "Mandy!? Junior!?" Sperg immediately hugged Junior. "Oh man! I'm so happy I wasn't the only one stranded here! It was so lonely! No one to bully!"

Junior pushed Sperg off of him again. "Y-Yeah, great, good to know you're doing ok."

Sperg then suddenly turned Junior round and performed a wedgie making him shriek a little. After Sperg let go, he patted Junior on the back. "Now I feel much better."

"Jerk."

Sperg turned to Mandy, noticing her red dress. "Oh… that's a cute new outfit. Didn't think you were the fashion type."

"How the heck did you get here?" Mandy asked. Trying to ignore what Sperg just said.

"How should I know?" Sperg responded shrugging his shoulders. "One moment I'm knocked out by a big green monster, the next I'm in this field lost and hungry, so I climbed up that tree to get some apples."

"So, you never fell in the ocean like Mandy?" asked Mario.

"Nope." Sperg responded, he looked at Mario with a surprised look. "Wow, killer moustache! Looks like my grandmother's, only smaller."

"Um, thanks?" Mario said awkwardly.

"That's sort of a relief you weren't stranded in the ocean too." said Junior as he was fixing his underwear. "This at least guarantees that we may find the others easier."

"So Junior, Mandy." said Goombella. "Don't you think you should introduce us to your friend here?"

"Oh right. Mario, Goombella, this is Sperg, our top bully and one of the kids who helped us. And Sperg, these are our new friends, Mario and Goombella." Said Junior.

"Nice to meet you Sperg." said Mario.

Sperg gave a thumbs-up. "Sure! I just had to help them, no one bullies my targets except me."

"Ooookay…" Goombella muttered.

"Now for the million-dollar question here. What are you hanging out with these two for?" Sperg asked to Junior and Mandy.

"They helped us out earlier, and we figured we could find you easier if we helped them in their treasure hunt." Junior responded.

Sperg turns to Mario for a few seconds, then to Goombella and soon back to Junior with a look of intrigue. "Treasure? I'm all ears!"

"We better explain while we're on our way to the village up ahead." said Goombella. "Saves time."

After a minute or so, Junior had given the full details of what happened to them in Rogueport, meeting Mario and Goombella and learning about the treasure behind the Thousand-Year Door which can only open with the Crystal Stars. Mandy then reluctantly explained how she ended up on a boat and Mario requested her to help him out until he can get her home. Soon the gang stopped for a moment to let Mario handle a bunch of Goombas attempting to attack them.

"So, all in all, we're kinda stuck here until we find Grim, so we decided to help Mario until we find Grim and the other kids." said Junior. "Mario doesn't know how we can get home without Grim's scythe however, so we're likely to find the others before then anyway. Especially if they're on the same path."

"Yeah, I need more nerds to punch, I gotta fill my quota." Sperg replied. "So, I'm down for finding everyone."

"Who knows, we might even help Mario through his treasure hunt even after we find our friends." Junior responded. "Being honest, going through this adventure, even though we just started, I kinda wanna see this to the end."

Mandy pondered for a moment, thinking about the treasure. She wondered if this treasure was worth keeping for herself, like Frankly said, it could be a magical item of money, thinking about it, she began to recall when she first heard about the Nightmare Ruby and how it's worth so much, eventually going back to her idea of ruling the world and making it all about herself. However, she wondered if the treasure was even worth it, since it might not be valuable at all, but she did remember that the people in her world still think the Nightmare Ruby is the Cyclopes Ruby and is only worth money, so she could still use it for what she wants, even if she has to get rid of Junior and Sperg, or even Mario for it.

But as she thought that, she was suddenly reminded of Mario patching her up when she was on the brink of dying, but she shook those thoughts away, only caring for herself and no one else.

"Ok, now I'm 100% in." Sperg replied. "It'll be way better than some dumb school trip about trains anyway. So, where's this first Crystal Star and who do I have to pummel to get it?"

"Probably in that giant castle we went past." Goombella spoke up. "The map shown a castle so that's our guess, so we're heading towards town to find a way to get across that giant chasm."

At that point, about seven Goombas ran off past the gang looking beaten up and bruised, Mario then came back to the gang holding onto a new Power-Up, it was a reddish flower. "Pesky Goombas." muttered Mario.

"Cool, you found a Fire Flower!" Goombella exclaimed. "Those are awesome."

"Definitely a personal favourite." Mario nodded.

"Can you show us this Power-Up?" Junior asked. "I really wanna see it in action."

"I'd… rather save it for emergencies."

"Ah c'mon." Sperg added. "I wanna see it too, Junior said how cool you made them out to be."

"Well… alright… I have three more in the chest anyway." Mario then placed his other hand on the head of the flower and crushed it, then in a flash of light and traces of fire. In an instant, Mario's red shirt and hat turned white, and his blue overalls turned red.

"Um. That's it?" asked Sperg looking unimpressed.

"Wait for it." Mario placed his hands forward and to their surprise, small fireballs began to appear in his hands. He then threw them in different directions, Sperg, Junior and Goombella looked really impressed with how he was just shooting fireballs from his hands effortlessly. Mandy was somewhat intrigued, but was mostly unimpressed, seeing much better things from Grim and throughout her adventures.

"Anyway, the town is just past those trees, so it's pretty much just a hop, skip and a jump to finding out how to get to the castle." said Mario as he extinguished the fires from his hands.

"Hang on Mario." said Goombella. "We better just ask where the Crystal Star is before asking how to get into the castle. If that town is familiar with that dragon we saw, whether or not it's a friend or enemy, I doubt they'd be comfortable telling us."

"For either protecting the dragon or believing we're not tough enough to face it I guess." said Mandy.

"I suppose we ought to." said Mario. "I don't want to cause some sort of alarm, or maybe the Crystal Star isn't even in the castle, either way let's just ask around for the Crystal Star like Goombella suggested"

As the gang began to walk towards the town again, little did any of them know that a green humanoid creature climbed out of the bushes, it was one of Boogey's men from the Underworld Express. He picked up a transceiver and spoke into it. "This is Shmebulock. I found the target, she's currently escorted by the kids and a couple new faces, she's heading towards the village in Petal Meadows."


	15. 2-2:Petalburg

They soon arrived into the small village, while the buildings looked decades old, they had been reinforced to look somewhat new and stronger against bad weather, or possibly something else, everywhere was mostly grass with a lone stone pathway and a small river of water going through the village and had many Toads and humanoid tortoises wearing boots matching the colour of their shells, coming in variations of green and red, Goombella immediately introduced them as Koopa Troopas, or Koopas for short

As the gang looked around, a green shelled Koopa walked up to them with a bowtie and a pair of glasses "Welcome to Petalburg." he said with a lack of enthusiasm. "Sorry if we don't greet you with open arms and such, we're kinda remote. Yep, once that dragon Hooktail came to our village fifteen years ago and made Koopatrol Castle its home, it didn't help tourism to say the least."

"Hooktail?" asked Goombella. "What a scary name." she said sarcastically. "So anyway, Green Boots, have you heard of anything called a Crystal Star? We're on a mission for them?"

"Crystal Star?" the Koopa asked, he soon began to rub his chin trying to remember. "It DOES ring a bell or two, but I doubt I can help you, our mayor might be able to help you, though he's old, REALLY old, but Koopas his age can be… um… really smart, though possibly senile. You'll find him in a pink house near the edge of town, can't miss it."

"A pink house? Sounds hideous but should be easy to find." said Goombella. "Thanks."

Soon the gang began to walk through the town seeing its beauty, though Mandy paid the least attention to the atmosphere and was still thinking on how she can use the treasure or Nightmare Ruby to help rule the world, she wondered what countries she should take over first, start with knowledge and try to legally earn countries through political gain, or simple take them over by force.

At that point, she dove out of her thoughts to see Sperg watching a white Bob-Omb in a general's hat and a big white moustache sitting on a deck chair looking glum, the others stopped to see what Sperg was doing.

"Hiya Mr. Bob-Omb, what's the matter?" asked Sperg.

"The names General White, not Mr. Bob-Omb!" he spoke in a typical war veteran's accent. "And I'm upset because two years ago I lost my life's dream, I'm sorry, but I must ask to be left alone."

Sperg shrugged his shoulders. "Heh, sucks huh? I normally punch people to cheer me up, maybe you-"

"We better do as he asks." interrupted Mario as he pulled Sperg back slightly. "We're sorry to disturb you General White." The gang soon walked away from General White who gave off a quiet sigh as they were out of his sight.

A minute later, the gang found a large pink house on a small hill, so they walked up the hill and knocked at the door, it soon opened revealing a wrinkled old Koopa with big white furry eyebrows and a walking cane, "Can I help you?" he said with a weak voice.

"We'd like to ask you about the Crystal Stars?" said Mario.

"Wuzzat? Who sent you?" the Koopa asked looking a little suspicious.

"Professor Frankly." Goombella spoke up. "He's researching the story behind them."

"Frankly…?" The Koopa smiled. "Well… friends of him is a friend of mine. Name's Kroop by the way. Come on in."

After a quick explanation of what was going on about their hunt for the Crystal Stars, the Mayor who sat down on his sofa leaned forward a bit towards Junior, Mandy and Sperg who sat on the couch and Mario and Goombella stood up.

"I didn't think you knew Professor Frankly." Goombella spoke up.

"Ah yes, we actually go a long way back, back when I was a stud with the ladies." He chuckled a bit before looking over to his photo frames, showing a younger him alongside a female Koopa his age before sighing. "Bless her poor soul." He turned back realising what he said. "I… I'm sorry, my wife she… n-never mind, it's not important to you tykes."

"Um… can I ask how she… passed away?" Junior asked.

"You care for that stuff huh?" Kroop asked. He smiled a bit. "Guess some kids do care for the old. She… she died from natural causes, there wasn't anything wrong with her, she was just too old to keep going. That was ten years ago right now… I'm sad she's gone, but she had a long hundred years to her, so I'm prouder of how long she's lasted and made me the happiest Koopa there could be.

Mandy rolled her eyes slightly. "Yes well… we're here about the Crystal Star. Do you know where it is or not?"

Mario looked at her with a stern expression. "Mandy. At least be polite about it."

"No, it's fine." Kroop spoke up, "You've got an important mission and I'm just slowing you down. Now where was it again… ah yes… that dragon Hooktail has it, you heard of him?"

"We heard some things about him." said Goombella. "But not every detail."

"Well…" Kroop said before clearing his throat, Mandy rolled her eyes knowing this was going to be a long tale "That dragon came fifteen years ago and every month it comes to our village to take a few poor folk to eat at his castle, in fact in a few days it's going to be that time of the month again when that blasted dragon comes again."

Mandy raised an eyebrow feeling a bit relieved that story was a lot shorter than she thought "Ok, so how do we get into the castle then?"

"Umm…" Kroop thought for a moment. "I forget, this memory of mine hasn't been too reliable lately… OH WAIT! I just remembered, far to the East outside the village is Shhwonk Fortress, there are two Stone Keys there, you need those to get into the castle. But are you really gonna slay that dragon?"

"Of course." said Mario with a confident tone.

"Wow!" said Kroop "I gotta say your one heck of a noble heroic one, we'll be sure to shower you with gratitude and riches for your victory."

The idea of rewards suddenly flown into their minds. Mandy thought of money, Junior thought of friends, Sperg thought of cake, and Goombella thought of having wings.

"That's alright." said Mario. "We don't need any reward; the safety of the people and the Crystal Star are more than enough." Unsurprisingly, the others didn't feel the same.

"No reward?" asked Kroop looking surprised. "You're such a kind-hearted man, seems a bit bad for me to give you nothing for saving us. Oh, I know, at least take this." Kroop walked up to his kitchen fridge and took out what looked like the Mushroom Junior ate, but was green instead of red.

"A Life Shroom?" Mario exclaimed as Kroop handed him it. "Oh… I don't know."

"Oh please, I have like twenty of them." Kroop responded. "You'll need it way more than me. Besides, I have a good feeling it'll prove useful."

"Well… thank you. I appreciate it." Mario turned to the others. "A Life Shroom has the power to resurrect someone who's either fell unconscious, or even died, although the dying part is strict."

Mandy then turned to Kroop. "Lemme guess, you're afraid of dying so you stock up on as many as you can to keep going."

"It's not that I'm afraid to die, I'm just not done with my duties as Mayor, that and it makes me less senile, so I can focus better." Kroop responded. "And I'm sure it'll come in handy for you tykes. Now what did you say your name was?"

"I'm Mario."

"Murphy Huh? That's a nice name." said Kroop. "Now then Murphy-"

"It's Mario." he said in a slightly annoyed tone. Seeing the senility kick in a bit.

"I appreciate that Murphy, they are nice eyebrows, now listen up. In order to get to Hooktail Castle, you have to get the Stone Keys from Shhwonk Fortress, tell the guy at the gateway to the east you have my permit to get through, and good luck kiddo's"

"Thanks for your help." Mario responded.

"Your quite welcome, but be careful, Hooktail is MEAN!" Soon the gang left Mayor Kroop's house and made their way to the east.

* * *

In a small computer room far from anywhere, we find two creatures looking similar to the goons back in Rogueport but were wearing blue and had lab coats on. They were examining Boogey as he fought several X-Shaped mechanical beings that shot ring-like lasers from their mouths. This was being taken place in a large open area surrounded by metal walls while the creatures were high above watching through monitors.

Boogey was in his huge bulky nightmare form as he was back in the Underworld Express, with the Nightmare Ruby embedded into his chest once again. After taking a few shots and slashing apart the mechanical creatures, he then unleashed a powerful blue energy beam from his mouth wiping out the rest of them with ease.

"Time!" said one of the creatures.

"Exactly three minutes, fifty-five seconds and zero-seven milliseconds." Said a computerised voice.

"Excellent." Said the other creature. "Master Boogey's power and adaption to the new form is drastically improving. And new abilities are being unlocked."

Boogey slowly turned and looked up at the two creatures. "Heh! So, when are you gonna bring more in!? C'MON! I'm still itching for a fight!"

"Uh, sorry Master Boogey." Said one of the creatures. "But that's all of the Yux Drones we can supply you with. We cannot afford you destroying more."

"HMPH!" Boogey scoffed.

"Master Boogey." Said the computerised voice. "We have received a message from one of your spies."

Boogey let out a sigh and after focusing a bit, he began to transform back into his original form. "Let's hear it TEC."

"Relaying message now."

"This is Shmebulock. I found the target, she's currently escorted by the kids and a couple new faces, she's heading towards the village in Petal Meadows."

Boogey smirked as he walked towards his shirt to place it back on. "Heh, so the little rat has shown her face. Tell yer Boss I'm gonna go take a walk. If you know what I mean." He walked through a door leaving the room, but then he came back in. "Just for the record, when I say walk, I mean I'm going to go get Mandy."

"Yeah, we kinda got it." Said one of the creatures.

"Great!"


	16. 2-3 Koops and Koopas

The gang had just left the Mayor's house and began to walk towards the gate leading to where Shhwonk Fortress supposedly lies.

Sperg soon spoke up to Mario. "So… why didn't you accept a reward?"

"They usually need it more than me, I'll accept Power-Ups because of their great help to adventurers like myself, but I won't be asking or begging for them you know."

"We're about to fight a giant dragon, you would want something out of it, right?"

"While sometimes I feel that way, knowing the people I've help are greatly appreciated is enough for me, plus I love a good fight anyway so kicking some giant dragon's tail is going to be fun anyway."

"Cool, so you enjoy a good fight too. You and I are gonna get along just fine!"

Soon the gang stopped at a Koopa Troopa who was guarding a short wooden gate. "Yo, we have permission from the Mayor to pass this gate." said Goombella

"Oh, have you now?" said the Koopa. "Alright, be careful though, there are a few Koopas out there who try to mug passer-by's, and there's the creepy Shhwonk Fortress which is said to have a monster there." the Koopa then turned around and opened the gate for them. "Good luck guys."

But before the gang could take a step "Um, excuse me, please stop for a moment, wait!"

The gang turned around to see a new face, an 18-year-old Koopa Troopa who wore a bluish hooded coat with his green shell coming out of it, dark blue shorts, white boots and a shy look on his face with a plaster over the front of his nose. He slowly walked up to the gang, looking to be a few inches smaller than Mario but a head taller than the kids, he looks left and right feeling nervous before he spoke up "Um… H-hi, my names… Koops, and I… I heard you're going to fight Hooktail… and… I have a favour to ask"

"What is it?" asked Mario.

The Koopa named Koops was silent as he rubbed the back of his head looking down trying to speak, there was silence for about three seconds. "I... well… oh… oh just, just forget it, never mind me, g-good bye." Koops then walked off and entered a house not far from the mayor's pink house, Junior had a concerned look on her face though.

"Talk about issues." said Goombella raising an eyebrow.

"Would've liked to have wedgied that issue out of him." Chuckled Sperg. "Wait? How do you wedgie a turtle?"

"Well nothing we can really do anyway, let's move on." said Mario.

"Hang on Mario, is… it alright if I stay here?" asked Junior as he turned back to Mario.

"Can I ask why?" Mario asked with a curious look.

"No need for all of us to go, besides, I wanna stay here for a bit longer before we go to Hooktail Castle."

"Ha! I bet yer just scared!" Sperg as he laughed again. "Scaredy cat!"

"Well you can go if you want, I'm not stopping you." Junior responded.

"Sure, no monsters gonna take me down!"

"Anyone else wanna stay here too?" asked Mario. Mandy, Goombella and Sperg simply shook their heads "Alright, we'll see you later then."

"Yep, don't forget to write." Said Junior jokingly.

With that, Mario, Goombella, Mandy and Sperg made their way past the gate and into the forest covered stone pathway. Junior then began to walk up to the house Koops went into, as he faced the door, he gave it a quick knock, and in a second or two, Koops opened the door to see the kids "Oh… Y-You're with that man, right?"

"That's right." said Junior. "I was wondering what you were going to ask?"

Koops looked a little surprised at first. "A-Are you sure? You care?"

"If I didn't, then I wouldn't be standing here asking, right?"

Koops was silent for a couple seconds, then he opened his door fully. "Come in, I'll explain everything."

* * *

Mario, Mandy, Sperg and Goombella were walking along the stone path with the trees walling the pathway at the sides making a sort of tunnel.

Mandy had been walking ahead of the others, deep in her own thoughts. The way the trees acted like a tunnel, it suddenly began to remind her of the tunnels' trains would go through, which then began to stir the feeling of déjà vu, the same she felt back in Wrail Village, she shook her head once more feeling frustrated.

Soon Mandy was interrupted from her thoughts as Mario quickly grabbed her shoulders and pulled her back as a large red blur smashed into the ground just in front of her cracking the stone, the four then jumped back as dust formed around the crack. As the dust cleared, out came a red shelled Koopa Troopa with wings and sunglasses climbed out rubbing his head. "Dang it! Just missed!"

"Looks like some bad Koopas like that guy said." said Goombella as the Koopa Troopa flew up, then three more red shelled Koopas with sunglasses but without wings came into view looking like they were ready to fight.

"Here's the deal." said one of the grounded Koopa Troopas. "Give us all yer money and food and we'll let you go with just an inch of yer lives."

"Are all these thug Koopas really stupid?" Mario muttered.

"Forget it!" said Goombella. "In fact, you better run away before we beat the crud outta you instead!"

"What?" said the angered flying Koopa Troopa. "You've got nerve! Let's get em!"

The four Koopas charged towards the gang, Goombella quickly jumped to the right luring the flying Koopa Troopa to her, Mandy jumped to the left luring one of the grounded Koopa Troopas, the second Koopa Troppa charged towards Sperg but he quickly puts both his arms up blocking a few punches before Sperg quickly threw his own punch sending him back, the last Koopa Troopa charged towards Mario spinning in his shell. But Mario quickly throws a kick to the shell sending him into a tree, The Koopa got up looking a bit dizzy but he then shot into his shell again and charged at Mario, but he simply jumps up dodging the shell which hits another tree. Mario still having the Fire Flower's effect, began to shoot a few fire balls in his direction making him jump around and dodge in a panic.

Mario's fireball throwing was suddenly interrupted when a large rock was suddenly thrown at the back of his head, he looked around to see that no one was around, so he went back to throwing his fireballs.

The Koopa Troopa was constantly trying to punch and kick Mandy but she easily dodged and jumped all the attacks, Mandy soon saw an opportunity to attack and she took it, she threw a powerful punch into the Koopa's stomach shooting him backwards but still kept his footing, the Koopa then looked back at the girl with a smirk. ' _Of course… shells._ ' thought Mandy feeling a bit annoyed, the Koopa shoots into his shell and charges towards Mandy who simply jumps to the side, the shell then makes a quick U-Turn to hit Mandy again but she then throws a strong kick into the shell sending him flying into the tops of a tree.

Sperg kept trying to punch the other Koopa Troopa but he kept dodging easily, but when the Koopa shot into his shell to charge at him, Sperg caught the shell, and threw him behind him. Then Sperg charged forward again at the Koopa but it quickly recovered and shot back at him, Sperg ducked making the Koopa fly over him, then Sperg jumped and landed on the shell hard.

' _Paratroopas, in order to disarm their wings I have to strike the back of their shell where they sit on._ ' thought Goombella as she dodged another shell strike from the Paratroopa, as he slowly flew up to get more speed to dash down, Goombella immediately shot herself into the air like a rocket collided her helmet-enforced head into the Paratroopa's chest, while it didn't hurt the winged turtle, the force of it shot him back causing him to lose his coordination in his wings making them flap recklessly as he slowly descended, Goombella jumped back and then jumped high up as the distracted Paratroopa was trying to get his wings straight, but he looked up to see Goombella was diving down and had slammed violently into the Paratroopa's back forcing him onto the ground, as Goombella jumped off, the wings on the Paratroopa's back lifted off, he looked to see his wings drifting off

"NO!" he shouted as he stretched his arm out to try and grab them but was nowhere near them as they slowly began to dissolve. The Paratroopa, now a normal Koopa Troopa once more, got up looking angry at Goombella "WHY YOU! Do you have any idea how hard it is to get Para-Wings?"

"Of course, I do!" shouted Goombella "I've been looking for a pair for years without breaking bank!" Goombella then shot herself into the Koopa Troopa's head.

* * *

At Koops house, he sat on a couch in front of a small coffee table with two cups of green tea, Junior sat on another couch on the opposite side.

"My family were the newest to move in to Petalburg ten years ago, I was only a kid back then." said Koops "When Hooktail attacked the town, my dad decided to go to the castle and fight him… but… he never came back."

Junior's eyes widened. "I… I'm sorry to hear."

"It's ok. You didn't know." Koops simply nodded as he turned to the wall looking at a large shield mounted which was blue with a white rim and had the patterns of a normal Koopa shell. "That there is my dad's prized shield, he was a war veteran before he met my mom, but… he never took it with him to fight Hooktail."

"W-Wait? What? Why?"

"My dad has a lot of pride. He claimed he could take Hooktail down without it, and you could see how that ended. So, I've lived my life alone with my mom."

"Where is she anyway?"

"She's out, her job takes a lot of her free time since it's not in town, I hardly see her, but I can take care of myself no problem."

"Man… my dad's still around, but… I never thought of the possibility of him leaving and never coming back. But I can see now. You wanted to join us to fight Hooktail, right?"

"Y-Yeah. I wanna finish what my dad was doing, for his and everyone's sake… and…" Koops tipped his head down looking embarrassed. "You see, everyone thinks I'm a weakling, a timid cry-baby, but if I beat Hooktail, I won't be those anymore, I'll be strong just like my dad."

"I know how you feel." Junior nodded. "I'm not like other humans, I'm kind of a monster/human hybrid, so trying to blend in with others was difficult. I… started out pretty timid and never sure of what to do… but after hanging around with Billy and Mandy, I became more confident. I became strong, more so than my own dad… who… can be a bit emotional at bad times… to put it bluntly."

Koops chuckled a little. "Heh… my dad was kinda the same, my mom told me how he cried during their wedding."

"Heh…Well, I'm sure Mario would let you join." Junior responded. "He's kinda our leader."

"I've heard so many tales about Mario." said Koops. "Claims to be the Mushroom Kingdom's greatest hero."

"I've only just met him, but he's really dang good in a fight, that's for sure."

Koops smiled. "So, am I allowed to join you on your quest to beat Hooktail?"

"I'm quite sure you will. But you better ask Mario yourself, if you don't have the courage to ask, then you may not have the courage to fight Hooktail"

"Y-your right. Once he gets back, I'll ask him face to face, no being scared."

* * *

The four Koopas began to run for it in a panic as Mario shot several fire balls at them. Once they were out of sight, he stopped. "That'll teach them."

"So… how long does that power last for?" asked Sperg.

"It will wear off by itself in seventy-two hours. But it can be removed sooner if I take enough damage."

"Basically, either big hits or a ton of little hits." Goombella added. "Also, hardly any other creatures can use most of these Power-Ups besides humans."

"Oh cool. Can I use one!?" Sperg asked excitedly.

"I'd rather we saved them for emergencies." Mario responded. "Besides, you're pretty tough without them."

Mandy rolled her eyes at Mario trying to boost Sperg's ego, she and the others then continued their trek towards Shhwonk Fortress.

About thirty minutes later. They had entered a small stone tunnel where it had two small stone pillars, each having a statue on them, both were large ball shaped with spikes all over them and two larger spikes on their sides, weird looking black eyes and razor-sharp teeth. The four looked up at them for a minute, then they looked ahead to see the way out was blocked by gate bars.

"This can't be Shhwonk Fortress, can it?" asked Mario.

"I doubt it." said Goombella.

Mandy moved from the other three to go to the way out to see if she could open it, so she began to closely examine the door, Mario looked up at the left stone pillar looking up at the statue on top, thinking it looked very life-like, he soon gently rubbed the pillar with his index finger seeing the dust on it.

Mario then moved his eyes to see the other pillar, only to become shocked to see the statue on top of it had moved to face the unsuspecting Mandy, the two larger spikes on the moved statue quickly shot out making two long spears as a ton of dust flew off them, the statue than began to spin around rapidly

"MANDY WATCH OUT!" Mario shouted as he dashed towards her, Mandy looked behind her to see the statue spinning rapidly and then it flew off the pillar aiming directly at her. But Mario dashed forward in time as he could, he grabbed Mandy and jump away in time making the statue smash into the wall making a lot of dust. Mario landed on the other side of the tunnel with Mandy in his arms, he soon puts the surprised girl down as he prepares his hammer.

The statue charges towards Mario but he quickly knocks it back with his hammer, soon the second statue jumps off the pillar and the two statues face Mario and Mandy, Goombella and Sperg quickly jump back avoiding one of their attacks.

"What the heck are these things?" asked Sperg.

"Roasted!" shouted Mario as he quickly puts his hammer away and threw a cluster of fireballs, all of them hitting the statues making big explosions everywhere in their area. Mario soon stopped looking a bit smug at his barrage of attacks. The smoke soon cleared making the gang quite surprised, the statues were completely unharmed whereas the entire area looks burnt and cracked, the statues gave out strange eerie laughs as they bounced up and down.

"Immunity to fire." said Mario looking quite annoyed. "Should've known since they're made of friggin stone." The two statues then extended their side spikes and began to spin around and then charged towards the gang who quickly prepared themselves for a tough fight.


	17. 2-4:Bristles

The fight against the stone spiked creatures continued, Mario had jumped into the air to dodge the two spiked creatures ramming at him causing the two to collide into one another. The creatures then shot upwards at him, but Mario dodged by blasting a huge fireball from his hands forward causing him to rocket out of the way, Mario rolls backwards a bit but quickly lands back on his feet and he then threw his hammer at the spiked creatures but the spiked creatures both spun super-fast using their spear-like weapons to deflect it. Unarmed, the spike creatures charged at Mario who jumped up onto one of the pillars the creatures had mounted on before causing a huge cloud of dust to form as the creatures struck the pillar causing their spear-like weapons to get stuck into the pillar. Mario then jumps over them to get close to Mandy, Sperg and Goombella who were in the side-lines.

Goombella had a green book out and was reading it to find the information on the spiked creatures; her book was a bestiary log. "They're called Bristles. They're known for their super tough defences and immunity to melee attacks for their extendable spikes. Items or strong range attacks are recommended."

"My Ultra Hammer seems ineffective." muttered Mario. "Unless…"

Seeing the Bristles in their current situation, they might not be able to deflect his hammer this time. Mario immediately dashed towards his Ultra Hammer and grabbed it readying to throw it, but the Bristles quickly dislodged themselves and began to spin towards Mario, in which he immediately thrusts his hammer forward knocking one of the Bristles back just inches before the spear–like weapon could scratch his chest, but the other immediately charged towards him, Mario was able to move to the side but the Bristle's blades made a very faint scratch across his cheek. Mario then thrusts his hammer backwards making the hilt smack into the Bristle's teeth sending it into a wall. He noticed the other Bristle charging towards him, but Mario immediately jumped over it and slams the head of his hammer down onto the top of the Bristle forcing it into the ground as Mario continued his flight over.

The Bristle in the ground quickly got up looking cracked at the top, and the one embedded into the wall jumped out having a bit of a cracked face. Mario knew his attacks were working now that he learned the timing of when to strike with his hammer

To Mario's surprise however, one of the Bristles faced Mandy, Sperg and Goombella and charged at them. The surprised three immediately jumped in separate directions, but Mandy landed near one of the other Bristles which began to spin in an attempt to strike her, but Mandy quickly jumped backwards dodging it barely, just scratching her dress. Mandy then suddenly shot her hands forward and grabbed one of the spear-like spikes stopping the Bristle's spin completely.

The other Bristle charged at Goombella, but she quickly jumped high making the Bristle charge past her heading straight towards Sperg, but he saw this and quickly jumped out of the way, causing the Bristle to hit the wall and stop dead in its tracks, then Sperg caught one of the spears too. Then he and Mandy swung both of them at each other causing both of them to crack severely.

"MOVE!" Mario shouted, Mandy and Sperg quickly released the two Bristles and jumped backwards enabling Mario to throw his Ultra Hammer spinning like a Frisbee and smashing into the two Bristles causing them to explode into dust and stone and the hammer smashed into the wall making a huge crack.

The dust had cleared, and all was left of the horrid monsters were bits and pieces of rubble. At that point, the metal bars blocking the exit had moved up. Mario then picked up his hammer, wiped the dust off its unharmed edges and placed it back on his back

"So, we needed to beat those things in order to proceed" said Goombella "Interesting traps. Diabolical, but interesting."

"Whatever. Let's just get going" said Mandy.

"Keep your guard up, there might be more hiding in the shadows." said Mario, and then he, Mandy, Sperg and Goombella made their way through the exit to find another open pathway in the forest.

After another short trek along the pathways, they eventually came across a giant stone fortress. Before Mandy stepped forward to enter the fortress, Mario placed his hand in front of her stopping her.

"Something doesn't feel right" said Mario "A… vibe of sorts" Mario stepped forward slowly and peeked his head through the door, there he saw a large Warp Pipe, going deep below the Fortress, but nothing else was on sight. "Wait here you three." he whispered as he slowly made his way to the pipe.

"I'm not some defenceless little girl." muttered Mandy feeling annoyed.

"Mario knows these dangers better than we do." said Goombella. "Best to let him do his thing."

"We almost became swiss cheese back there, I'm all for caution now." Sperg added.

Mario slowly moved his hands close to the pipe to wipe away some of the dust, a clear sign no one used it in a long time. Possibly years due to the amount of dust. He began to wonder what dangers there were exactly.

"MARIO!"

Goombella scream made him jump. And he immediately turned around and bolted out of the Fortress. To his surprise, he saw a small floating airship, but unlike others he's seen before, this one was even smaller and more futuristic looking. Sperg and Goombella were fine, but Mandy was trapped in a metal vice on a wire which began to elevate her up into the ship as she struggled relentlessly.

Mario immediately reacted by putting both his hands together and launching a much larger fireball at the ship making an effective explosion that smashed the airship to pieces, dropping Mandy whom Mario quickly caught.

Soon another person fell from the ship hitting the ground hard. He pushed himself up looking a bit dizzy. "Urgh… what happened!?"

Mandy's eyes widened as she was placed back on her feet. "Boogey!?"

Boogey stood straight and faced the four who looked ready to fight. This time he wore a generic jacket over a white shirt, denim trousers and brown shoes. "Well now. It's a good thing that airship of mine was insured."

* * *

Back at Petalburg, we find Junior and Koops still at his house. Koops had his father's shield strapped to his right arm; the shield looked big enough to cover his whole body if he were to crouch

"I'm not so sure about this." said Koops.

"You've never fought before, right?" asked Junior. "Plus, your father lost because he never brought his shield with him. So, I say its best you brought it with you. Besides. It really suits you. You definitely look like someone who's ready for battle."

"Yeah, I guess. But still, it seems strange to use his prized shield since he wouldn't let me touch it when I was a kid."

"Well, all the more reason to wield it! Can you use it?"

"I… I think I can. I always used a toy one but…"

"I'd say let's see what you can do with it. How about we test your skills outside the town."

"S-sure. I suppose there's no point in not trying it out."

* * *

Back in front of Shhwonk Fortress. Mario, Mandy, Sperg and Goombella all faced Boogey. "Hm… Mandy told me all about you." Mario said calmly.

Boogey merely chuckled. "And I trust they were about how I almost crushed her."

Mario had a more serious look to him, remembering what Mandy had said. He then turned to the three. "Mandy, Goombella, Sperg. Get down into that pipe and get the Stone Keys."

"What!?" Sperg exclaimed. "No way, we can take him on! He's in his weak skinny form."

"Yeah… about that." Boogey chuckled as he threw off his jacket and took off his shirt.

Mandy's eyes widened, her pupils shrunk, and she felt her heart sink, to see that Boogey had the Nightmare Ruby embedded into his chest once more. "He got it back!?"

"Eek!" Sperg squealed.

"Ahh… to see Mandy act so scared… brings joy to my soul! To finally be scary!" Boogey laughed more, but then he looked serious. "I'll make this easy for you to understand. Surrender the girl, and I won't tear you to pieces. And don't even think about fighting me, you don't have that tentacled brat or any magic scythes to defeat me this time!"

Mario kept a serious face as he was silent, but soon he dug into his overalls and took out the treasure chest, he dug into it and took out two items, the Hammer Suit given to him by Frankly, and a second Fire Flower. He placed the Hammer Suit into his overalls and the chest after it shrunk and handed the confused Mandy the Fire Flower.

"It doesn't matter who uses it. You three, get in that pipe, get the Stone Keys, now!"

Boogey raised an eyebrow as he kept his arms behind his back. "You're seriously gonna take me on aren't you!?"

"Mario." Mandy said looking annoyed. She looked over to Boogey and sighed in frustration. "I told you what kind of power-"

Mario suddenly turned to face Mandy surprising her. "I said get in that pipe! Do NOT make me repeat myself! We have no time for this!"

Mandy felt a little startled by Mario's sudden change in demeanour. But she got her seriousness back. "Fine. Your funeral." She crushed the Fire Flower's head activating it, in a flash her red dress became white, the white parts of her dress and blue socks turned red and her headband turned while. Then she, Sperg and Goombella all ran into the Fortress and jumped down the pipe.

Mario then took out his hammer and placed it over his shoulder, while his other hand was ignited. "You will not be taking anyone!"

Boogey growled. "Fine, let's see how you handle the power that brought that devil girl to her knees." Suddenly the Nightmare Ruby activated and in a series of flashing lights, Boogey transformed into his monstrous form from before. Mario looked a little startled but kept his cool readying for a fight.

"TIME FOR SOME FUN!" Boogey shouted as he jumped high and aimed towards Mario.


	18. 2-5:Shhwonk Fortress Battle

Mario was seen running through the forest shooting fire balls at the charging Nightmare Boogey who was closing in on him. "RUN! RUN! RUN! AS FAST AS YOU CAN! BUT DON'T STOP RUNNING! CUZ YOU'RE A DEAD MAN!"

Mario suddenly jumped high catching Boogey off guard, he stopped and looked up seeing Mario diving down to him with his hammer out. Boogey merely chuckled as the jaws on his stomach opened reading to catch him, but Mario shot a bunch of fire balls first into the stomach causing them to explode on the inside dealing much more damage than against his skin, forcing him to close his stomach, but because he was distracted by this surprise pain, Mario flew down and slammed his hammer against Boogey's skull, then bounced off to a safe distance behind him.

Boogey quickly recovered and turned around readying to throw a punch but didn't anticipate Mario closing in and took another powerful upwards swing to his jaw sending him flying back. Boogey landed on the ground on his back hard, but he quickly slammed both his hands on the ground launching him back into his feet, adapting to his new body almost perfectly. ' _Drat, he can swing that thing pretty hard._ ' Thought Boogey, surprised by how strong Mario could swing that hammer at him, compared to Mandy swinging the scythe and Junior's beast form attacks, this was an entirely different beast. But this was still far from overwhelming him.

Mario charged forward again, this time with Boogey charging at him too, Boogey tried to punch down at him, but Mario suddenly slid between his legs and appeared behind him, Boogey quickly turned around to backhand him in which Mario dodged swiftly and threw a fireball directly at Boogey's face making him stumble back, then Mario swung his hammer again, this time at Boogey's short legs making him fall to the ground. Mario jumped up high again and planted both his feet into Boogey's face before bouncing off again.

Boogey growled furiously as he slammed his fists again to get him back on his feet. "You impudent, little man! YOU'LL PAY FOR THIS!"

Mario put his hammer away and cupped his hands together for create an even larger fireball, getting bigger with every second. Boogey charged forward, but Mario jumped over him still holding the fireball, and shot it at Boogey's back making a bigger explosion pushing him forward, then Mario jumped forward and swung his hammer against the back of his head sending him flying forward and landing on his front.

Rage began to overtake Boogey, he screamed in anger as he pushed himself up, quickly turned around and launched a giant energy beam from his mouth. A shocked Mario quickly ran to the side and ran faster as the giant laser beam slowly chased him as Boogey turned himself to direct the beam. But after a few seconds it fizzed out as Boogey became exhausted from it. Mario took this opportunity to charge forward and swing his hammer again, but this time Boogey retaliated by opening his stomach jaw and caught the hammer. The surprised Mario let go and jumped back and watched as his hammer got eaten.

"Not so tough now without your hammer!" Boogey laughed.

But his laughing distracted him from Mario jumping forward and performing a sideways hammer fist to his face knocking him to the side slightly, not as powerful as his hammer, but it still caught him off guard, then Mario planted his feet firming on Boogey's chest and began firing several fireballs into his face. Boogey roared and tried to punch Mario, but he jumped in time tricking Boogey into punching his own face. Mario landed behind Boogey and dashed towards him, Boogey turned to him, only to be introduced to a boot to the face sending him back, as Boogey got his composure back, Mario flew in again and threw a strong kick upwards into his jaw sending him flying back onto his back.

Mario stood there preparing for another attack, Boogey just lied there in complete anger. ' _I… I don't understand! Everything went much better back on the train! This fat man! He's… running circles around me like it's nothing! When Mandy never stood a chance, nor Grim, or anyone._ ' Boogey pushed himself up and faced Mario with glaring eyes filled with anger. ' _No one from the Mushroom Kingdom was that powerful, they were helpless little wimps last time! And yet, this human… is more powerful than Mandy and Grim! Such a sick and twisted joke!_ '

Mario prepares himself to fight more, Boogey just growls furiously. He turns to look behind him, to see Shhwonk Fortress in the distance. Mario looked a little confused, until he realised what he was planning. Boogey suddenly turned and ran towards the Fortress, planning to just abduct Mandy and go. Mario quickly gave chase. He jumped high up preparing to slam both his feet into Boogey's head, but to his surprise, Boogey suddenly spun around and threw a backhand into Mario throwing him back and landing a few feet away, but as Mario recovered, Boogey threw a powerful punch directly into Mario's face sending him flying into the forest, at that instance, the Fire Flower's effect wore off and his clothes changed back to normal.

Boogey was confused a bit but didn't care as he began to march towards Mario. "Well now. Give up already!? You may be strong, but you're still nothing compared to my might, you can smack me around all you want but you're gonna fall first!"

"Don't think you've won just yet!" Mario exclaimed. Surprising Boogey to see he was still standing after that punch. Mario's face was bruised, but he looked as if he was ready to fight on.

Boogey just laughed. "You little idiot! You've lost your hammer! And you've lost your magic! How do you expect to beat me!?"

As Boogey gloated, Mario took out the Hammer Suit, squeezed it, and in a flash of light, Mario's appearance changed once again confusing Boogey. Mario's overalls were black, his shirt was orange, his cap was replaced with a black helmet and he has a large black shell on his back. Mario kept silent as Boogey just stared, but then Boogey smirked and charged. "If that stupid thing is your saviour then you've got another thing coming!"

* * *

Deep within Shhwonk Fortress, Mandy, Sperg and Goombella were all walking in what looked like a sewer, a long tunnel with water coursing through it. The only inhabitants were a group of black fuzzy creatures Goombella described as Fuzzies. Thankfully, Fire Mandy could take them out from a distance, using these orbs of flames from her hands felt surreal, the flames felt warm, but they didn't harm her at all, but what felt more surreal was that how she just somehow knew exactly how to shoot them. Although she was still shooting any Fuzzies that attacked them, her mind drifted into wondering what other kinds of Power-Ups this world had, and what they could do as well, deep inside, she felt eager to see more, but all of this was experienced while keeping her emotionless look.

After a few minutes, the three arrived in a large open stone room with two small pedestals, on them were two stones, one shaped like a sun, and one shaped like a crescent moon. They looked left and right to see nothing. Mandy then turned to Sperg. "You. Go get those stones."

"Why?"

"There might be a trap, so you get them."

"Why can't Goombella get them!?" Sperg looked down to see an annoyed Goombella's lack of arms. "But she was holding that book and- oh forget it!"

Sperg walked up to the pedestals and slowly moved his hands close to the sun shaped stone and picked it up from the pedestal, he then jumped back expecting a trap, but there was nothing. Feeling a bit at ease, he then moved to the moon shaped stone and picked it up from the pedestal. Still no trap. Sperg gave of a sigh of relief and walked back down following Mandy and Goombella back through the tunnel.

"I wonder how Mario's doing?" said Goombella feeling a bit concerned.

"You saw how he was throwing those fireballs." Sperg responded. "I bet he's mopping the floor with him."

Mandy turned to Sperg. "You saw what Boogey could do when we fought him, a bunch of stupid fireballs won't do a thing, especially when he could withstand Grim's scythe like it was nothing."

"Boy, you sure lack confidence in Mario, don'tcha?" Goombella said.

"Grim's scythe is the most powerful thing in our world, if it's blade couldn't even make a dent in Boogey. Then the only thing I can see Mario doing is being torn up into pieces of confetti."

"Ok, so how exactly did you beat him!?"

"Junior transformed into a big beast and held him down, so we could extract the Nightmare Ruby from him."

"And you don't think Mario could just as easily rip it out of him?"

"If he's smart, then probably."

Goombella had a bit of a stern look, she didn't like how doubtful Mandy was. As the trio entered the room with the pipe going back to the entrance, the three were startled by a new face standing in front of the pipe. It was a Fuzzy like the others but was a golden colour.

"Hey, you!" the Gold Fuzzy exclaimed. "This is our turf! If you think you can waltz on it and take what you want! You've got another thing coming! Now I munch on your heads!"

"Oh yeah! You and what army, shrimp!?" Sperg asked as he cracked his knuckles.

Suddenly a giant army of black Fuzzies appeared from the ceilings and several holes in the walls and charged at them along with the gold one. Mandy began firing fireballs at them and for the most part it worked, but she was quickly getting overwhelmed.

"You just HAD to ask didn't you!?" Goombella shouted at Sperg.

* * *

Back to Mario and Boogey. Boogey continued to try and attack Mario but with him constantly dodging, after enough dodges, Mario jumped towards his head and summoned two smaller hammers out of nowhere and smacked both of them on the side of Boogey's head making him stumble a bit, they hurt more than Mario's punches, but not as much as his regular hammer, but it left him stumbled enough to let Mario throw a powerful kick into his jaw sending him further back. Mario then threw the two hammers directly at Boogey's chest striking the Nightmare Ruby making some severe sparks.

Upon hitting it, something in Mario's head clicked. Realising if he just removes the Nightmare Ruby, he'll win. He jumped up and landed on Boogey, planting his feet firmly on his chest and dug his fingers into the Ruby creating several more sparks.

"WHAT!? NOO!" Boogey screamed as he tried to grab Mario, but he jumped off in time and began to throw more hammers as he was falling back down, Boogey just charged forward ignoring them and tried to punch Mario in the air. But before he could, Mario suddenly pulled himself into his body like a Koopa in his shell, Boogey punched it sending Mario flying again, but because he was in his shell, it did almost no damage apart from being rattled around.

Mario popped out of his shell and ran towards Boogey preparing two more hammers. Boogey tried to slam both his fists down at him but Mario jumped to the side in time and threw both hammers at the Ruby making more sparks, but no damage.

Mandy, Sperg and Goombella got out of Shhwonk Fortress, but everyone had bite marks and unfortunately for Mandy, she sustained enough damage to remove the Fire Flower's power from her. All three looked in surprise to see Mario's new appearance and how he was running circles around Boogey.

Boogey jumped and prepared both his hands for a hammer fist, but instead of dodging this time, he pulled himself into his shell and took the hit. Since it was Boogey's strongest basic punch, it caused a small earthquake, pushed Mario down making a crater and made Mandy, Sperg and Goombella lose their balance from the tremor.

Boogey laughed as he stepped back but became shocked when he saw that the shell itself didn't even have a scratch on it, it just sat there in the crater, Mario popped his head out looking a bit smug. "Nice try! But you're not strong enough!"

"NOT STRONG ENOUGH!? I'LL SHOW YOU NOT STRONG ENOUGH!" Boogey screamed in rage as he began to hammer down on the shell after Mario popped his head back in, making several smaller earthquakes and several cracks across the ground. Hammering it faster and harder with every swing, but every single one of them didn't make any sort of impact on the shell. Mario however was being rattled around quite violently, but he wasn't in any pain as the shell was absorbing almost all of the impact.

Boogey then spun his right fist rapidly generating a large amount of electricity, the faster it spun, the more it generated, and it was spinning as fast as helicopter blades. Then he slammed his spinning fist so hard onto the shell it made a huge shockwave and created giant cracks in the ground, almost splitting the land into pieces, trees felt over, parts of Shhwonk Fortress crumbled and Mandy, Sperg and Goombella fell to the ground.

After a few seconds of silence, Boogey moved his fist away feeling exhausted after that last move. But became shocked to see what he did. Mario was gone. "Where the heck did he go!? Did I obliterate him!?"

Mandy pushed herself up to look around, wondering where Mario went too. "If he left that crater, I didn't see him at all."

There were a few seconds of complete silence, Boogey began to chuckle a little, believing he destroyed Mario, until he heard a slight rumble. Suddenly Mario jumped out of one of the cracks in the ground, but he was directly under Boogey, so when he shot up, he made a direct hit in his crotch. Boogey wailed in pain as he held onto his crotch, but it only distracted him long enough for Mario to jump up and kick Boogey in the face hard enough to force him onto his back.

Then in one last ditch effort, Mario pulled out two hammers and dug the hook ends into the Nightmare Ruby creating several sparks, using the hammers to keep the gap between the Ruby open, Mario threw both his hands down and grabbed it and pulled.

Boogey reacted and tried to grab Mario, but this time he jumped off while keeping his fingers dug into the Nightmare Ruby, and with that, it was pulled out of him. As Mario jumped away with the Nightmare Ruby in hand. Boogey suddenly began to have violent spasms as his body was changing back, as a result, his stomach spat out Mario's hammer before closing and he changed back to normal.

Mario picked up his hammer and looked over to Boogey who began to sit himself up, feeling exhausted from the fight. He then looked over to Mario feeling scared of his power, and that he has his Ruby. "GIMME THAT!" Boogey scrambled to try and snatch it off him, but Mario moved back and threw the Nightmare Ruby towards the others, Sperg responded by opening his mouth wide and eating the Nightmare Ruby. Making Mandy and Goombella weirded out by this.

"Mmm!" Sperg belched a bit. "Quite salty with a DREAMY filling!" He then laughed at his own bad joke until Mandy punched him in the back of the head.

Boogey stepped back worried, but after seeing Mandy, he just smirked. "Heh, got yourself quite the body guard haven't you Mandy?"

Mandy raised an eyebrow as she walked up to him after hitting Sperg. "What are you talking about?"

Boogey laughed as he began to step back. "This fat man you brought with you, you have no idea just how good he is." He laughed a bit more before calming down. "Guess I'll need to come up with a better way to get my Ruby back and bring you to where you belong. After all… he's far more powerful than you in every way imaginable."

Mandy took offence to what he just said but kept her evil demeanour. "Joke all you want. It won't help you."

"Who's joking. This isn't Earth anymore, and if this jumping mad man here is any indication, you're probably the weakest thing here."

"Hmph. You're just trying to get in my head."

"I'm just stating the facts!" Boogey stepped back more. "You won't get your way for much longer, with just how much better he is than you, you'll have to submit to him." Boogey suddenly began to run through the forest. "I may have lost, but I'll be back weakling! You just better hope your leader keeps you safe!" With that he disappeared into the distance.

"You were pretty awesome there Mario." said Goombella walking up to him with Sperg.

"I didn't think a fat guy like you would be pretty tough." said Sperg as he picks at his teeth.

Mario turned to them. "Did you get the Stone Keys?"

Yep! Sure did!" Sperg dug into his pockets and showed both of them. Mario took them and placed them in his treasure chest.

"Great work!" Mario looks up to see everything was getting a bit more reddish, seeing that the sun was starting to set. "Setting already huh? Time sure flies. Anyway, let's head back to the town."

The four began to walk back, but Sperg than began to ask about Mario's new outfit. Mandy kept silent, thinking about what Boogey said. She witnessed Mario jumping around dodging Boogey and blocking most of his attacks with that shell and how he managed to get the Nightmare Ruby from him with a bit more ease compared to what she and Junior did. She sighed as she followed the others back to town.


	19. 2-6:Koops joins the Party

Outside Petalburg in the meadows, we find Junior and Koops sparring, as a means to help Koops adapt to his father's shield, Junior moved fast using his tentacles as both close and long ranged weapons but Koops had shown to be surprisingly skilled in combat using his shield to block every attack and even using his shell, Koops stumbled forward slightly every time he used his shell to block, but it still proved useful. After one more block with his shield, Koops punched his shield forward on Junior forcing the surprised boy back, Koops then took the opportunity to throw a punch into his face directly. Junior stumbled back slightly unintentionally giving Koops time to perform a signature attack. Koops quickly placed his shield on his back, dove into his shell and shot forward into Junior's ribs shooting him back slamming onto the ground.

Junior slowly sat up rubbing his ribs in pain, he then saw Koops holding his hand out to him offering to help him up. Junior took this offer and held his hand out to Koops who helped him up.

"Dang your tough. What were you unconfident about?" asked Junior.

"I… that was my first fight actually. I didn't know I'd be so good." Koops replied.

"So, got any other tricks in your shell?" asked Junior.

Koops looked around, but then he pointed up to a floating block made of brown bricks "Check this out." Koops then prepared his shield and he threw it like a Frisbee smashing the bricks apart. And soon it came back to him like a boomerang and he caught it.

"Sweet move! You've definitely got some skill, Mario would definitely want you to join." Junior felt he might have been exaggerating, but he knew Koops needed the morale boost.

"Ah shucks." said Koops feeling embarrassed as he rubbed the back of his head.

"There you are Junior." The two look to see Mario, Mandy, Sperg and Goombella. Mario then walked up to Koops.

"Oh... h-hi Mario." said Koops sounding nervous and taking notice of the Hammer Suit. "Oh wow, a Hammer Suit, they're really rare."

"Thanks, it was a gift. So, from what I can assume, you wanna tag along right?" asked Mario.

"I… y-yes of course!" said Koops. "You see… my dad went to Hooktail Castle to go fight him, but he never came back. And… I wanna avenge him, and also help everyone. That's why I wanna join you."

"Now how could I say no to you then." said Mario looking cheery.

"F-For real!?" asked an excited Koops. "Oh, thank you, I promise you won't regret it!"

"You better rest up though, since the suns setting, we'll be heading to Hooktail Castle at the crack of dawn!" Mario added.

"W-Why so early?" asked Sperg sounding shocked. "Why don't we go now!?"

"We've had a long day, all of us. Besides, it'll be for a better ambush."

"Can't argue with that." Said Junior.

* * *

Back at Petalburg, the gang was at the inn to stay for the night, they could've stayed at Koops' house but it was too small to fit all of them.

After registering, they all made their way to the restaurant area, Mario and Mandy were last to go through and they were handed two menus by one of the Toads who run the inn. Her pigtails indicated that she was female.

"Well now, looks like we'll be busy for a while. We never had this many customers in ages, not to mention the great Super Mario joining us! What an honour!"

Mario nodded. "Just Mario is fine, and no matter what anyone says, I'm still just another customer here."

The Toad smiled and took notice of Mandy, she looked back at Mario and suddenly gasped. "O-Oh my! Oh my! I never knew!"

"I'm sorry?"

"You and Princess Peach finally tying the knot! Oh, my goodness! How long was this kept a secret! How old is she!?"

"How old?" Mario turned to the confused Mandy and realised what the Toad was talking about. "O-Oh! Sorry, there's been a mistake, Mandy here isn't my daughter, I'm just looking after her for a while."

The Toad looked surprised, then she covered her blushing face. "Ah! I'm so sorry Mario! I shouldn't have jumped to conclusions like that! It's just that when I saw you with a young blonde girl-"

"It's ok, you didn't know." Mario interrupted. "Um, maybe we should just find a seat and order up."

"Ah! Yes, good idea. This way please."

Sometime later, everyone was having dinner, while the others shared tables, Mandy chose to sit on her own. She looked over to see Junior sharing a table with Koops, while Mario shared his with Goombella and Sperg, who had just left for the moment, the fact that Mario still had the Hammer Suit on, she was a bit curious on how it worked with going into his shell like that, although she was more confused than anything as to how Goombella was using cutlery with no arms.

At that point, Sperg showed up with the Nightmare Ruby in his hand as he placed it on the table Mario and Goombella were sitting at before sitting down himself and finishing his dinner. "Phew. Man, you would not believe what that thing went through to get here." Sperg said as he chuckled a bit.

"I've… got a pretty good guess." Goombella responded with a disgusted look to herself.

Mario took out his treasure chest and placed the Nightmare Ruby in it. "There, that should keep it out of the wrong hands for the time being."

"Yeah. Seriously though, I'm surprised you beat him." Said Sperg. "How'd ya do it?"

"Well… it was just a hit and run strategy until he gets exhausted." Said Mario shrugging his shoulders. "I've faced gigantic foes like him before, but he was much slower compared to others I've fought."

"I've heard." Goombella added. "Bowser, right? He's the biggest bad you've fought?"

Mario nodded. "Since Boogey just fought by swinging around, he was much easier to predict, unlike Bowser who has a more… sophisticated style despite just being a big brawler. He's also much faster and can take a boat load more punishment."

Mandy listened in and rolled her eyes, feeling annoyed by Mario talking about his actions. She then just looked back to her meal. But she couldn't help but think about how Mario was able to take down Boogey by himself when it took her and everyone else to do so.

Once again Mandy shook the thoughts out of her. ' _I know why he won, he used cowardly moves and weapons to make it easier. He's not stronger than me… although… I did use the power of Grim's scythe… and Junior helped…_ ' remembering this, made her clutch her fork tighter until it bent. Realising what she did, she placed it down and grabbed another fork from a small cup in the middle of the table. ' _Just forget it… Boogey cheated to begin with, with that stupid ruby, besides, Boogey saying Mario's better than me in every way is wrong on so many levels! He's just trying to mess with me._ '

* * *

Each room had two beds, so the gang had to share. Mario and Mandy shared one, Goombella and Koops shared another and Junior and Sperg shared the third one.

In Goombella and Koops' room, Koops had his new shield on his lap as he started to polish it. "So that belongs to your dad huh?" asked Goombella.

"Y-yeah." said Koops. "My dad was my hero, a War Veteran, and… I always wanted to be like him."

"Y'know, my dad's an archaeologist." said Goombella. "He too was my hero, so I know it must've been tough for you to lose him."

"Hm, seems we're in the same boat huh? Speaking of which… what do you make of the human kids?"

"Junior, Mandy and Sperg? They seem alright, though Mandy does have an attitude problem, Junior's kinda cool for having those weird powers, Sperg's alright too, though not the sharpest tool in the shed."

"I see. Can we trust them though, especially Mandy?"

Goombella raised an eyebrow, feeling surprised by Koops' question. "That seems out of left field actually? Do you have trouble trusting humans?"

"Well… I've never seen them before really? I have no idea what to make of them."

"Well if Mario trusts them then we should. Though Mandy could be a loose cannon. None the less she does seem trustworthy enough… for the time being."

"I see… well that's good enough for me." said Koops. "Sorry if I sounded a bit distrusting."

"Relax it's cool. You just joined the team and you've never met any of us, so its natural you would think that, plus you seem like the shy and timid type, so it is understandable."

Soon the conversation went somewhat silent, Koops then got off his bed and placed his shield against the drawer gently. He then popped his arms into his shell and got them out into the head area readying to pull his shell off, until he notices Goombella watching.

"Um… p-privacy please?" asked Koops blushing, feeling embarrassed about having a girl watch him unchanged.

"Oh sorry!" said Goombella feeling embarrassed as she turns around.

In Junior and Sperg's room, Junior shape-shifted his casual clothes into his pyjamas as he jumped onto his bed.

"Show off." Said Sperg.

"Hm, jealous?"

Sperg was a little jealous, but he didn't admit it. "So… when do you suppose we'll get home?"

Junior shrugged his shoulders. "No idea. I want to find the others before we go. And at the same time… I kinda wanna stick with Mario until this treasure hunt is over. Either way I kinda like how our adventure is going so far."

"Yeah. You should've seen it, Mario just trounced that Boogey creep. He did a way better job than we did."

"Yeah, and now that the Nightmare Ruby is with us, he shouldn't be that big of a threat anymore." Junior fell silent a bit and realised something. "Hey Sperg?"

"Yeah?"

"How do you suppose… Mandy's dealing with this?"

"Eh? She probably doesn't care at all."

"Well I meant that, someone like Mario, he managed to beat Boogey by himself, whereas it took all of us to do it."

"Not sure I follow."

"Don't you think Mandy might get mad, I think Mario is much stronger than her."

"Hm… Boogey did say before he ran off like a chump, that Mario was better than her in every way."

Junior flinched a little because of this. "Oh geez… I think Boogey was trying to get into her head, but… do you think Mandy will take this to heart?"

"Nah, in order to do that, you need a heart to begin with." Sperg chuckled.

Junior chuckled too. "Yeah." He soon stopped chuckling. "But still… I've got a bad feeling that they'll be some major friction between Mandy and Mario."

"Well if so, then let's hope Mario is strong enough to keep her down."

In Mandy and Mario's room. Mandy had been sitting on her bed with her shoes off, reading a small book left on one of the tables, something about an adventure between two Toads and a Goomba searching for treasure in a haunted forest. It was oddly written, and had a few detailed sketches to go with it, but otherwise it was an acceptable read for her, not like she had much else to do.

Unfortunately for her, her mind clouded with thoughts of what Boogey said. She shook them out again, but they eventually began to cloud again. The thought of someone superior to her in every way, she just couldn't get them out of her mind.

She looked over to Mario who had taken his helmet off, but that was it. He then sat on his bed and began to take his boots off. Mandy turned back to her book, trying to ignore him, but as she turned a page, she felt a hand placed gently on the top of her head, she looked to see Mario doing it, presumably just rubbing her head gently like a parent would. Mandy felt the need to threaten him, but Mario had already moved his hand off her and spoke up.

"Enjoying your book?"

Mandy felt a bit confused at first, not expecting that line of questioning, but she turned back to it. "It's ok. I've read better but it's fine for now."

"Yeah, I've read that one too, it's popular for the younger readers. Anyway, I'm going to grab one last drink before I hit the hay, want me to bring you one?"

"Um, no thanks."

"Alright, well not too much longer anyway, we've going at the crack of dawn." Mario then walked towards the door.

Mandy looked over at the corner of her eye. "What are you, my dad?"

Mario chuckled a bit. "That Toad sure thought that. Though I can't blame her, humans are rare in the Mushroom Kingdom, also… Princess Peach is blonde, much like you."

Mandy properly turned to Mario. "That's why she got me mistaken for your kid?"

"Guess so… I wouldn't worry too much about it. But…"

Mandy raised an eyebrow at his sudden silence.

"It's about Hooktail, a giant dragon… I know I asked you to come with me, but are you sure you wanna just stay here until I get back?"

"I can take care of myself. Besides, I like a good fight."

"Ok." With that, Mario left the room to get a drink. Mandy felt a little surprised by how little argument Mario had made, she wondered if Mario knew what she was capable of, then again if he did know, then he wouldn't have asked if Mandy wanted to stay.

As she turned another page, she touched the top of her head where Mario placed his hand, looking back through the door he left, she simply shook her head once again and turned back to her book.


	20. 2-7:Hooktail Castle

Morning had broken, and we find the gang making their way out of Petalburg. Mandy and Mario looked well rested, the others were fine but looked a bit tired, then there was Sperg who was practically sleepwalking until Junior slapped him in the back of the head with one of his tentacles waking him up. "Ah! I'm awake Mom!"

Mandy rolled her eyes again before looking over to Mario who still had his Hammer Suit on. He soon turned to the gang. "Ok, Hooktail Castle is likely going to be very dangerous, so if any of you wanna stay behind where it's safe, I won't object to that."

"I may not be a skilled fighter, but I'm sure my brains will be of use to you. I'm going" Said Goombella.

"Same." Junior added. "I wanna help."

"I'm just eager to beat up some chumps!" Said Sperg.

"I said I wanted to help the people and avenge my dad. So, like it or not, I'm going." Koops responded.

Mandy was silent, she had already answered Mario's question last night, so she didn't feel the need to, the others looked at her, but before anyone could say anything, Mario spoke up. "Alright then, let's move out."

Just as the gang were about to take a few steps, they heard a voice coming from behind them. "Koops!"

They all turned around to see a girl Koopa Troopa walk up to them, she had pink sleeves, a green shell and a long golden ponytail. Koops immediately became startled. "O-Oh golly… Um… h-hi Koopie… Koopie Koo, uh, what are you doing here?"

Koopie stepped forward looking concerned "Well… I couldn't help but overhear that you're going to Hooktail Castle, right? But… you're just joking right, you're not exactly a powerhouse you know. He'll eat you up."

"I-I know that but… I want to be tougher, for you. So, I have to do this." Koops responded.

Koopie felt startled by this. "What? No, you don't! Going to some dangerous place! It's stupid! So, what if you're timid, and a bit of a cry baby, I don't care about those, I just want you to be you Koops."

Koops felt silent for a few seconds, but soon he looked over to Mario and Junior, seeing what they've done for him, he then nodded and faced Koopie more confidently. "I'm sorry Koopie Koo, but I've made up my mind." Koopie felt startled by this and soon looked angry. "But don't worry about me. I've got War Veteran blood in me, besides, I'm with Mario and a small army, I'll be fine."

Koopie Koo clutched her fists tightly as she growled at Koops. She then suddenly tucked into her shell." FINE! IGNORE ME!" She shouted as she suddenly rocketed towards Koops knocking him down as she shot past, however she also got Sperg and Mario in the process. "STUBBORN KOOPA!" She shouted again as she shot back colliding into the three again before darting off back into the town.

"D-Did somebody get the number on that truck?" asked a dizzy Sperg.

Mario got back up wiping the dust off his arms, thankfully the hits he got weren't enough to get rid of the Hammer Suit.

Koops slowly got up looking upset as he watched Koopie Koo disappear into the town. "I'm sorry Koopie Koo, I promise I'll come back a stronger Koopa."

"Alright, enough of the drama, can we get going now?" asked Mandy looking annoyed.

"Sure, lets-a-go." Mario responded. Soon everyone began to walk towards Hooktail Castle again.

Some time had passed, and everyone was quiet, whether it was that they were all nervous for where they were going or had nothing to say, either way Mandy enjoyed this silence, though as they were walking, Hooktail Castle was starting to appear in the distance, she merely scoffed, she's handled several things that are far worse than a giant dragon, everyone was making a big deal out of something so small to her.

At the same time however, she began to reflect on what happened yesterday, mostly involving the Koopas and the Bristles, while the Koopas didn't put up much of a fight for her, their speed and defence made her have to think a bit more on how to approach them, then there were the Bristles who were really fast and dangerous, she needed to team up in order to defeat them.

And finally, there was Mario, who managed to defeat the powered-up Boogey when it took her and the gang to do the same, she shook her head again and reminded herself that Mario used cowardly moves and weapons, she knew for a fact that she was more powerful than Mario. But still, she began to suspect that battling in this world will be more difficult seeing as everything she's fought so far wasn't human and was different from the monsters she's fought back in her world where they mostly just needed a couple shots to deal with. In a way however, she might have more fun fighting here than on Earth.

Some time had passed, and they had made it back to the three stones they had saw at the beginning of their adventure. "A-According to the mayor, this is where the Stone Keys need to be put." Said Koops.

Mario nodded, he then took out the two Stone Keys from his treasure chest and threw the moon-shaped key to Junior, who was closer to the rock with the moon-shaped hole in it, he and Mario then placed their Stone Keys in at the same time and took a few steps back as well as everyone else.

Soon the middle stone shaped like a Warp Pipe began to shake and crack in several areas, and it began to crumble down into little piles of pebbles revealing a real Warp Pipe, looking shiny and new despite being sealed away under stone for who knows how long.

"So, this will take us to the castle?" asked Sperg.

"Should do." Mario responded. He then jumped up and dove into the Warp Pipe feet first.

Sperg cracked his knuckles before jumping into the pipe too, Junior followed after helping Goombella up onto the rim, then they both jumped in at the same time, Koops jumped in after and Mandy shortly followed.

After a short travel through the pipe, they ended up right in front of Hooktail Castle, everyone was surprised by how much bigger it was up close when it didn't seem so from the other side. Either way they began to walk towards the main entrance and passed through the giant wooden doors, it was already slightly opened but the test of time had made it cracked and damaged in several areas, much like the rest of the castle itself, which was untouched for what looked like centuries, so much dust and several cracks and dents everywhere.

"Golly… this is a lot spookier than I thought it'd be." Koops muttered.

"You had your chance to run, don't go hiding in your shell if you know what's good for you." Mandy responded as she stepped forward and walked ahead of the team.

Until Mario grabbed her by the shoulder and pulled her back slightly. "Don't go walking in all willy-nilly. There could be traps."

Mandy huffed slightly, she felt annoyed to be taking orders from Mario, but she knew he was right on the possibility of there being traps. She then placed her hand out towards where she was going and looked at Mario through the corner of her eye. "After you then."

Mario stepped forward preparing his hammer, while the others slowly followed him until they reached a broken bridge leading towards the castle. The gap was too big for everyone to jump over, though what took Mandy by surprise was when Mario suddenly picked her up and placed her on his shoulders, he then ducked down towards Goombella. "Here, get on my head."

Goombella jumped onto Mario's head without really thinking, then Mario ran and jumped over the gap with ease, he placed the two down as Junior covered the gap with his tentacles for the others to cross. "Why'd you carry us over?" asked Goombella.

"To make it easier for Junior." Mario responded.

"Thanks, but I could've handled all of you no problem." Said Junior.

Soon Mandy pushed the large purple doors open and they finally entered the Castle Interior, it was decorated with purple tiles and grey brick walls, much like the outside, the interior was also damaged and crumbling, and not a single sign of life anywhere with the exception of a few blades of grass and flowers peeking through the cracks on the ground and some from the old windows.

As they began to slowly walk through the interior, a cold breeze filled the air, implying there was a draft somewhere, but this was ignored as they had to keep going through. But what was disturbing was the number of Koopa skeletons sprawled all over, some had cracks all over their bodies, some were crushed, some even had spears and swords through them, implying there was some kind of war that happened in this castle.

"Geez, I wonder what this castle was used for before that dragon took over?" asked Goombella after seeing the remains. "I wouldn't mind studying it once Hooktail's toast."

Mario turned to Goombella. "I would rather we moved onto finding the next Crystal Star once we're done here, but I don't mind you staying behind to study if you really want to."

"Nah, I can study it once our adventure's over." Goombella responded. "Besides, who knows what other historical monuments I might find going with you."

"O-Oh… Oh no!" the gang looked over to Koops with a stunned expression on his face, they realised he was staring at a Koopa skeleton, it was similar to the others, but it had various armour plates and wore blue boots.

Koops walked up to the skeleton, he shivered a little. "T-This armour! This is what he wore before going to the castle! T-There's no doubt about it! This is my father!" Koops fell silent, as with everyone else.

Mario walked up to Koops and gently place his hand on his shoulder. Sperg looked very emotional but was trying to hold it back, Junior and Goombella looked sad while Mandy looked as if she couldn't care less. "W-Wait? What's this? My father's clutching some kind of letter, or at least his… urgh… bones are."

Mario looks at the skeleton and notices an old piece of paper, he gently removes it from its hand and hands it to Koops. "I think you should read it, it's your dad after all."

"O-Ok… I'll try." Said Koops as he gently opens it up. "I came to this castle to destroy Hooktail, but I am stuck and can go no further…" Said Koops reading the letter.

Mandy rolls her eyes as she began to walk ahead, Goombella notices this and began to follow her.

"You should probably wait for Mario, you know." Said Goombella.

"I'm not sticking around so I can listen to some sap story, so I'm going to scout the rest of the place." Mandy replied. "Besides, I don't need his help."

"What happened to 'There could be traps' like Mario said?"

"You clearly don't know me if you think some stupid old traps are going to kill me."

"Wow, you that full of yourself?"

Mandy turned back to glare at Goombella, who felt a little intimidated by her death stare. Mandy then turned back forward and noticed something, right in front of the door to the next room was another Koopa skeleton, but this one was pure red, red bones, red shoes, red shell. This felt insanely suspicious to her, almost wanting to stay away, but she merely scoffed at it before turning to Goombella.

"Hey, you're smart, know what this red skeleton means?"

"I don't have any idea. I've never seen a red Koopa skeleton before."

"Hmph, some help you are."

"Says the girl who knows nothing about this world." Suddenly something in Goombella's mind clicked. "Wait, step back for a minute."

Mandy moved away from the skeleton and looked at Goombella. "What?"

"Now that I think about it, that pile of bones is remarkable similar to something I've read up."

"And that is?"

"Dry Bones. Living Koopa skeletons."

"Living? I'd be more surprised if I didn't have a bone-head like Grim for a slave."

"Koopas have super long lifespans, some have been alive for a thousand years, a common theory is that their lifespans are unnatural, when they die, they have a chance to come back to life as a Dry Bones."

Mandy looked back over to the red Dry Bones. "So, you're saying this thing could still be alive?"

"Well it hasn't moved yet so I don't know, but it could be playing dead to lure us into a trap."

Mandy looked back at the red Dry Bones, then she walked over to another skeleton with a spear through it, yanked it out and walked back to the red Dry Bones. "Theory testing."

Mandy thrusts the spear towards the red Dry Bones, but right before it could strike its head, the hand suddenly lifted up and caught the spear surprising Goombella, while Mandy was more so surprised it catching her attack just in time.

"MARIO!" Goombella screamed as the red Dry Bones emitted a blue aura and began to reassemble itself, standing at the same height as Koops and somewhat taller than Mandy, the Dry Bones then broke the spear with the hand that held onto it. Mandy jumped back preparing her fists as Mario, Koops, Sperg and Junior ran up behind her and Goombella readying to fight.

"You clearly don't value your lives much if you've come to disturb us." Said the Dry Bones with a ghostly hollow voice. "You will go no farther, and from this moment… you'll be nothing but bones!"

"Oh yeah! You and what army!?" asked Mario preparing his hammer.

The red Dry Bones points up, they all look up to see the entire ceiling was completely covered with hundreds upon hundreds of Dry Bones.

"Uh… how did we not notice that before?" asked Sperg.

The army of Dry Bones suddenly all dropped at the same time. "MAMA MIA!" shouted Mario right before all of them landed and turned into a sea of bones throwing them around.

"You just HAD to ask didn't you!?" shouted Mandy.

"How was I supposed to know a million of them can cling onto the ceiling!?"


	21. 2-8:Castle Traverse

Some time had passed, and the gang has defeated all the Dry Bones, including the Red Bones, all of them had fled into several gaps in the floors and walls, through the windows, doors and so on.

"Man! That was awesome!" Sperg exclaimed. "I never had a fight like that before!"

"Yeah! I feel sorry for anyone who might have missed that." Goombella replied.

Mario on the other hand wasn't so cheerful, looking down at his outfit, he took enough damage to have lost the Hammer Suit. He merely places his hammer back onto his back and turns to the others. "Everyone ok?"

"Y-Yeah. I'm ok." Koops replied as he placed his shield on his back.

"I'm ok too." Said Junior.

Mandy was silent as usual as she patted the dust off her arms. Mario took that as her response as he turned back to Koops. "So, that letter than. He wasn't your dad?"

"N-No. He said his son was Kolorado." Koops then rubbed the back of his head feeling a bit embarrassed. "My bad." He then realised something. "Oh right, the note also said that Hooktail has a weakness."

"What is it?" asked Junior.

"It said Hooktail was weak to something that starts with 'Cr' and ends in 'Icket'."

Sperg rubbed his chin. "Hmm… I wonder what it is. It's really puzzling."

Mandy rolled her eyes at Sperg before turning to Mario. "Let's just go before more of those Bone-Heads show up."

Soon the gang continued their trek through Hooktail Castle. The next room was just as spacious, this time a few more Dry Bones were sprawled along the ground, but they didn't move, whether they were playing dead or were dead, either way they didn't bother the gang as they walked past.

After walking up a set of stairs, they found a locked door, Mario approaches the door and takes out his hammer to break the lock. That was until Junior stopped him and pointed to a key on a platform above them, Junior grabs it using one of his tentacles and hands it to Mario, who then unlocks the door normally, leaving a disappointed Sperg.

The next room was somewhat small but had a set of stairs leading to a giant green block, and in front of them was a door leading elsewhere. They walked up the stairs and saw that there was a smaller green block not far from the giant green block.

"I think I've seen this before." Said Goombella. "I think they're called Lift Blocks. You smack that smaller one and it makes the bigger one elevate."

"Oh, cool." Junior responded. "So, we just take this to go up."

"What about the other door?" asked Sperg, pointing to the one downstairs.

"Either one of them could lead us closer to Hooktail." Said Mario.

"Should we, um, split up to see which is the right way?" asked Koops.

"Use your head." Said Mandy. "We saw that dragon go to the top of the castle. Going up will lead us closer to him."

"Didn't need to be rude about it." Mario looked back at the door. "I think we should check it anyway, just to see if there are any Power-Ups."

Mandy sighed. "Fine, we'll split up." Mandy began to walk down the stairs. "Junior, Sperg, you're with me."

Junior and Sperg looked back at Mario who shrugged, they then followed Mandy towards the door. Mario, Goombella and Koops then stood on the Lift Block with Mario reaching over with his hammer to smack the smaller one.

Mandy looked to see the others rising up on the Lift Block, she then opened the doors and walked in with Junior and Sperg. The room itself had quite a few jail cells, all of them had the remains of other creatures, other than Dry Bones. They did a quick look around and found nothing interesting, but Mandy soon spotted something bright red under a pile of bones behind some of the bars.

She walked up to the pile and slipped her arm through the bars and grabbed the red object. As she leaned back, she opened her hand to see what she had grabbed. It was a strange red circle with a white musical note on it, she turned it around to see a small pin, implying this was a badge of sorts.

"What did you find?" asked Junior.

Mandy turned around to respond to Junior, but the second she opened her mouth, her voice was replaced by loud chirping noises, the second she spoke, she quickly covered her mouth with her free hand in shock. The startled and confused Junior and Sperg merely stared.

Mandy chucked the badge into Junior's hands before speaking again. "Uh, is my voice ok?"

Junior replied but now he spoke with loud chirping noises, the startled Junior dropped the badge. "Wh-What the heck!?" The three of them looked down at the badge in silence. "Weird. It's kinda strange, but you sounded just like a cricket."

The moment Junior said, both he and Mandy made the realisation concerning the message Koops read out. Mandy then turned to Sperg. "You take the badge."

"Why me?"

"Because your voice will sound less annoying with it. Besides, we'll need it."

Sperg shrugged and picked up the badge. He spoke but he made chirping noises, quickly closed his mouth before placing the badge in his pocket. He tried speaking again but he still made the chirping noise. He then frowned and kept silent.

Before the three went towards the door, Mandy heard a faint whistling sound and stopped for a second, Junior was about to speak up until he could hear the whistling sound too. All three of them looked around to see where the whistling sound was coming from, Mandy soon turned to a crack in the wall far behind the jail cells. She walked to it with the two following, and from the sounds of it, the whistle was coming from the crack.

The crack was big enough for Mandy to slip through, and while she was adamant on avoiding traps, she carefully slips through.

The room itself was quite spacious and had a giant hole in the wall and ceiling, letting in a lot of sunlight onto a bed of flowers. But to her surprise, all of them were not regular flowers, but Fire Flowers, with the exception of about five of them, they looked the same as Fire Flowers, but were blue instead of red.

Mandy for some reason felt intrigued by this, but soon her intrigue was interrupted by the same whistling sound, she looked over to the right to see a lone Dry Bones, this particular Dry Bones was holding a small rusted watering can which he filled up by a small moat connecting deeper into the castle and far away from it. This Dry Bones then walked up to the flower bed and began to sprinkle the water, while somehow whistling in an eerie yet joyous way.

The Dry Bones then turned to Mandy, much like the other Dry Bones, Mandy would be compelled to fight, but seeing it like this, she at least decided to wait for it to strike if it wanted. "Intruders?" the Dry Bones murmured. "Well… make yourselves at home I guess." He then reattended to his flowers.

Junior soon slipped through the crack and walked up to Mandy. "Hey Mandy, find anything-" he then took notice of the Dry Bones. "Um, hello?"

"Hello to you too." The Dry Bones responded as he finished watering the flowers.

"Um… those are some nice flowers you have there." Junior knew they were Fire Flowers but played along anyway in case the Dry Bones didn't know.

"Thank you… I've been taking care of them for quite some time now."

Mandy spoke up. "You're not like the other skeleton turtles we've met. Why are you different?"

"The same reason why you two kids look different."

"I mean we just faced an army of them trying to kill us. Why aren't you defending this castle from intruders?"

"What's there to defend?" the Dry Bones directs his arms to all over the destroyed sections of the castle. "This place used to be magnificent… I can't even remember how it ended up like this, and I've been here for a thousand years."

"You've been a skeleton for a thousand years, in this castle, all by yourself?" Junior asked looking surprised. Mandy on the other hand pondered the thousand years part and made the connection to the Thousand-Year Door.

"It's not all bad." The Dry Bones responded, looking down at the flowers. "About a year ago, these flowers began to sprout, so I decided to take care of them and let them grow as much as they can, until it's time for them to spread their seeds across the land."

Mandy spoke up again. "So, what are the blue ones?"

"I'm not sure. Aside from their colour difference, they're pretty much the same. I think they're much rarer with how few there are. So, in a way, I'd want their seeds to spread more." Said the Dry Bones.

Mandy pondered for a bit and spoke up again. "Let's make a deal. Let us have some of the red flowers so your blue ones will have more room to spread."

The Dry Bones tilted his head slightly as Junior looked to Mandy with a confused look. "Now what would a bunch of kids want with some flowers?"

"You want the blue ones to spread right? We can get some use for the red ones. We won't take all of them. So, do we have a deal?"

The Dry Bones looks down at his flowers, then back to the kids. "Well… alright… sharing is caring I suppose."

"Thank you." Said Junior as he walked up to the flower bed and began to gently pick six of the Fire Flowers.

As Junior walked back, the Dry Bones spoke up again. "So, what are a bunch of kids doing in a place like this?"

"We're here to kill Hooktail." Mandy replied bluntly.

The Dry Bones was silent, but then he shrugged his shoulders. "Ok. Good luck." He then wandered towards a crack in the wall and disappeared from sight.

"Well… guess we should head back." Said Junior.

Before they left, Mandy looked to see the Dry Bones was still nowhere in sight, she looks over to the blue flowers, five total. She quickly walked up to the flower bed and picked one of the blue ones and went back through the crack.

"W-What are you doing?"

"These blue flowers are exactly like the Fire Flowers, it could be useful, besides, he still has plenty to grow more."

Junior hardly wanted to argue with Mandy, so he just kept quiet as they both went back into the previous room where Sperg waited for them. The moment he noticed the flowers, he spoke up again but to have his voice once again replaced with chirping noises, covered his mouth again and grumbled in frustration.

"Yeah, we found some Fire Flowers." Said Junior, just trying to assume what Sperg said.

Junior turned to Mandy to talk about the blue flower but became surprised to see that Mandy had crushed the head of the blue flower, then in a flash of light, Mandy's red dress turned into a cold blue, the white parts and her socks turned red and her headband turned blue too.

Pretending it was a Fire Flower, Mandy raised her hand out to try something, and to hers and the others' surprise, a ball of mist appeared from her hand, she threw it having it bounce like a regular Fire Flower, but it left traces of frost where it landed.

"Hm, so if I have to make a guess… this is an Ice Flower. Whatever. Let's just head back."

* * *

Meanwhile, Mario, Goombella and Koops had arrived at another door a few rooms away and had decided to wait for the others to come to them. Mario had already returned the Lift Block back down for them to use.

Mario, out of boredom, dug into his pocket to take out his treasure chest, after opening it, he took out the Nightmare Ruby and began to examine it. Mario couldn't deny, this was something he had never witnessed before, a red brilliant cut gemstone with a yellow sphere with a snake eye inside it, Mario looked at it from different angles and no matter where he turned it, the eye in the middle continuously looked at him.

"Man, that thing is creepy." Goombella spoke up about the Ruby. "No matter where you turn it, it keeps staring at me! Freak."

"It looks at you too?" Mario asked. "When I turn it, it's always looking at me."

"Weird…" Koops muttered. "Maybe we should, um, bury it around here or something. If that Boogey guy you mentioned gets it back, we'll be in trouble, won't we?"

"I'm sure Mario can kick his caboose again like last time." Goombella replied.

Mario was silent the entire time, but he soon gently placed the tip of the Nightmare Ruby against his chest, much like how Boogey had it. Goombella and Koops looked a bit concerned, but nothing seemed to happen, Mario moved it from his chest to examine it again. "I think Mandy mentioned that it only affects nightmare beings like Boogey. I think I know a guy who can keep it safe."

"Who?" asked Goombella.

"I have a rival of sorts who's obsessed with gemstones and treasure hunting, his name's Wario."

"Wario?! That ugly brute who steals stuff and smells like rotten garlic?"

"That's him, though we don't get along, he's good at keeping gems safe. So, I might just give him this, I'm sure he can protect it. That's one thing I do trust him on."

"Well, if you say so." Goombella responded.

Soon the three heard the Lift Block raising, so Mario placed the Nightmare Ruby back into the chest and into his pocket. To their surprise, they saw Junior with six Fire Flowers and Mandy with her Ice Flower colouration.

"Oh wow… looks like you found some good treasure there." Said Koops.

"Yup. We found a friendly Dry Bones that let us have some of these." Junior responded.

Mario takes out his treasure chest again and opens it up and Junior deposits the Fire Flowers. He then turns to Mandy to ask about the new colouration, but before he could, Mandy already placed her hand out and threw an ice ball, this surprised Goombella and Koops seeing the ice ball bounce like a Fire Flower's fire ball.

"Wow! An Ice Flower!? I thought they were extinct!" exclaimed Goombella.

"I remember seeing them when I was really young." Said Mario.

"Ice Flowers were just as abundant as Fire Flowers ages ago, but the overgrowth of Fire Flowers dwindled their numbers, everyone thought they were extinct. I guess they can only grow in specific places." Said Goombella.

Mario then turned to Sperg. "So, what about you?"

Sperg tried to speak but only chirping noises came from him surprising them, he tried to speak again but the same results happened, he then chirped in anger as he took the badge from his pocket and slam-dunked it into Mario's treasure chest.

"Argh! Man, that badge is annoying! It's some kind of weird badge that makes you sound all chirpy, replacing your own voice!"

"I… see…" Mario placed his treasure chest back in his pocket.

Mandy walked ahead past them. "Let's just go already." They soon walked with Mandy again through the castle. They went up a flight of stairs towards another door, this one was also locked but they couldn't find the key, so Mario this time used his hammer to smash the lock off and they went through.

The next room was a long pathway high above the ground floor, leading to a bridge that connects to the wall, looking down, they could see the bottom where they started, but a drop from this height would be enough to kill anyone. As they went further ahead, they noticed the bridge was out, and it was too far for Mario to jump to. Mario notices the nearby window and looks out it, there he saw a narrow path just outside it leading to the other side, it was risky, but they could move along this small path to get to the other side.

As Mario turned to face them, he noticed Junior had already made a bridge with his tentacles with Mandy already across and Goombella making her way across carefully. Mario simply smirks at this as he waits for everyone else to cross before he does.

The next room had another green Lift Block, the gang climb the stairs and get on top of it, but they noticed that the switch to activate it was further away this time. Mandy threw an ice ball at it but to her surprise, it dissipated before it could reach.

"Guess the range of an ice ball is slower and not as far as a fire ball." Said Mario. He then suddenly picked up Mandy surprising her and moved her closer. "Try now." Mandy felt irritated with Mario just picking her up like that, but she chose to swallow her pride for a second as she threw another ice ball, this time it hit, and the Lift Block began to elevate, Mario placed Mandy down and she responded with a light punch to his arm. Mario knew what it was for, so he merely shrugged it off.

As they reached the top, two doors met them, one on the opposite side the another, either one could lead to the right way. "Split up?" asked Junior.

"Agreed." Mario responded. He, Goombella and Koops took the left path, Mandy, Sperg and Junior took the right path.

Mario, Goombella and Koops entered the left door and walked in, there they were greeted by a series of treasure boxes, and one suspicious creature. It wasn't a Dry Bones like the others.

It was a Mouser, looked like one of the same purple mouse-like creatures from Rogueport, but was a snowy white coloured, wore a red eye mask, has red high heels and had a tail that curled into a heart-shape at the end. "Hm? Oh my. And who's this handsome piece of cheese?" said the Mouser in a flirtatious tone, and seemingly directing that to Mario specifically. "I can't believe there are other thieves here besides me. How very strange."

"Oh, um… hi?" said Koops feeling a bit nervous.

"Who the heck are you?" Goombella asked.

"Me? Well I'm Ms Mowz, the globe-trotting thief! Heard of me sweetie?"

"Can't say that I have." Said Mario.

"Hm." Ms Mowz looked a little annoyed but shrugged it off. "Well anyway, I heard that there were rare and valuable badges here in this castle, that's why I'm here. But the real question is, why are people like you roaming in such a run-down place?"

Goombella huffed, despising flirts like her. "Well if you must know, we're here to defeat Hooktail! And just so we're clear on this! We set our sights on the Crystal Star before you! Ok?"

"Goombella! No!" Mario mumbled to her, making her realise what she just said.

"Crystal Star you say?" Ms Mowz chuckled. "I didn't know a thing like that was hidden here. Sounds intriguing. Or was I not supposed to hear that?"

Goombella bit her lower lip in frustration. "Why you!"

Koops whispered to Mario. "Five coins say Goombella goes ape on her."

"Deal." Mario whispered back.

"Oh, but it's ok, I mean you were looking for this Crystal Star first. And I already found the badge I was after, so I'll let you get your Crystal Star." Ms Mowz began to walk towards Mario.

"Let us!? What the heck do you mean by that, you gross Flirt?!" Goombella shouted.

Ms Mowz suddenly jumped up and kissed Mario on the cheek surprising him. "It means I must say bye-bye Mr Cutie. I know, it's sad, we just met and now we already must say farewell. Alas…" She then leapt up high and onto the edge of an open window.

"O-Oh… you're so bold." Muttered Koops feeling a bit stunned by all this.

"J-Just who do you think you are anyway!?" said Goombella.

"Oh, I almost forgot. I have a little secret to share with you?" said Ms Mowz with a confident grin. "Somewhere in this castle is a badge that will help you best Hooktail, or so I've heard. I don't know what kind of badge it is, maybe you've found it, maybe not. But I would recommend getting that badge if you are going to fight Hooktail… well, take care handsome moustached man! Let's get together again real soon."

"Sheesh! What's with that girl!?" said Goombella. "Who acts so disgusting like that!?"

"I-I dunno. I think she's um, kinda cute." Koops responded.

"Don't you already have a girl waiting at home? You know, the one who kicked your shell left and right?"

"Uh… I ah… M-Mario help me out here."

Both of them looked to see that Mario wasn't paying attention, instead he had his treasure chest out and was holding the red badge Mandy found, he was in complete silence, most likely pondering something. But soon he let out a smile as he dropped the badge back into the chest.

"I think we may have already found Hooktail's weakness." Mario then walked up to the closed treasure boxes. "Come on, looks like our little thief friend forgot to loot some stuff."

Goombella and Koops looked at each other confused, then went to help Mario with the stuff. During that, Mario gave Koops five coins without Goombella noticing.

* * *

Mandy, Junior and Sperg had entered a larger room, there they saw a door at the far end that was too high for them to jump to, but Junior's tentacles could construct a bridge as usual. The three walked up to it and Mandy looked over to Junior.

"You know what to do."

"What about the others?"

"Mario can carry them, now do it."

Junior let out a very faint sigh as he made a small diagonal bridge looking like stairs, Mandy walks up first with Sperg following. Junior pulled himself up and the three walked through the door.

There was a flight of stairs going up, another one going down but was destroyed, not that it mattered too much since their destination was up. They began to walk up them in a line, with Mandy first, Sperg second and Junior last, keeping his eyes peeled for any traps.

As they reached the top of the stairs, they saw a door with a lock. Mandy looked around to find a key but nothing, so she lifts her right leg and throws a strong kick into it denting it badly, but it didn't break off. Seeing this caused Mandy's eye to twitch slightly, seeing she couldn't break it off with one hit when Mario was able to no problem, the idea of Mario being stronger than her began to get under her skin, but she shook the thought away and prepared for another kick. But before she could, she heard footsteps behind her. She, Junior and Sperg looked behind to see Mario, Goombella and Koops walking up to them.

"Wow, you caught up quickly." Said Sperg.

"We didn't want to keep you waiting, so we hot-footed it once we finished our little looting." Said Goombella.

"Oh cool! What did you find?" asked Junior.

"Just a few coins, but we did find this." Mario took out from his pocket, a cute little frog doll, the material somewhat resembled that of the Hammer Bro Suit.

"Is that a Power-Up?" asked Junior.

"Yep, it's a Frog Suit, it lets you swim and breathe underwater as if it was second nature. The only problem is that it's kinda useless on land. Either way I have three more with this, so if we need a swimming expedition, we're covered for a small team."

Their conversation was disrupted by Mandy doing another kick on the lock breaking it. She turned back to the others. "If you're done chit-chatting, we need to get moving."

"Hold on." Mario said as he placed the Frog Suit away and prepared his hammer, he gently opened the door and to their surprise, it leads outside.

All of them looked ahead, there they saw a long stone bridge leading towards a giant stone tower, that was where Hooktail resides.


	22. 2-9:BOSS: Hooktail

The gang walked carefully along the long stone bridge leading to the highest tower. The wind was a tad stronger than it was back at the entrance, but it wasn't as bad as it could be. Goombella and Junior had a concerned look to them, Sperg had an eager look to him, most likely excited to fight a dragon, Mandy had an unconcerned look to her as usual, Mario looked normal, but his eyes shown a somewhat fierce look to them.

Koops on the other hand was the most concerned, not only was this the terrifying Hooktail that has invader his home for more than ten years, but also killed his father. He was going to fight him to the death, with not much experience to begin with but he at least had others to back up on, needless to say, he was very nervous throughout the whole thing.

They had gone inside the tower, but it led to a spiralling staircase, as they climbed it, the wind seeping through the large windows had gotten a bit stronger. While stronger, this still wasn't enough to cause any problems for them, except that Mario had to hold onto his hat to make sure it didn't get blown off. Soon they made it to the top, they were just outside the main room of the tower, it was gigantic compared to what they had seen so far, and what was blocking them was a giant set of purple doors.

Sperg cracked his knuckles. "Alright, let's get this guy!" He was about to charge for the door until Mario grabbed him by the shoulder and pulled him back.

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves here." Mario took out his treasure chest and opened it up. There he pulled out three Fire Flowers and handed two of them to Sperg and Junior, with him taking the third one. "You kids aren't that experienced in fighting in our world yet, so use these for extra coverage."

"Cool, thanks!" said Sperg as he crushed the head of the Fire Flower and transformed. His white vest was red, and his trousers and woolly hat was white. He then began to throw fire balls around while laughing maniacally. "I am the god of hellfire!"

Junior was about to crush the head of his Fire Flower but became hesitant. He then turned to Mario and offered the Fire Flower back.

"What's wrong?" Mario asked as he activated his Fire Flower and transforming.

"I… I already have powers, so I think it's best I don't use them, save them for someone else."

"Goombella and Koops can't use Power-Ups, and I have six more. I'd still say you should use it."

"Why can't Goombella and Koops use them?"

"Power-Ups only affect certain species, mostly Humans and Toads. So, you shouldn't have a problem using it right?"

"Y-Yeah… but I'm actually half-human. I'm not sure if it'll work on me, besides, with my powers, I shouldn't need it."

Mario was silent, but he then spoke up. "Keep it on you, just in case. In case of emergencies." Junior looked hesitant at first but nodded and placed the Fire Flower inside his jacket pocket. Mario then took out the red badge and placed it on top of the chest. "Ok, so I'm very certain this badge is Hooktail's weakness. Someone needs to wear this. Any volunteers?"

Everyone looked at one another, until Goombella stepped forward. "Urgh, this is lame, but I better take it. I don't have much in the way of fighting anyway."

"Ok." Mario takes the badge and places it on her neckerchief. He then looked to everyone. "Ready?"

Everyone agreed in their own way, then Mario took out his hammer as they all began to push at the doors opening them. As the doors swung open, there they saw a giant open room with several giant gaps for the dragon to fly through, but right in the middle of the room, was the dragon Hooktail himself, staring right at them as if he was expecting them.

Mandy was a bit surprised honestly, the dragon didn't seem as big as she had thought before, but something this big would definitely cause problems. She made a quick analyse of the room and saw that there was about twenty feet of space between Hooktail's back and the ceiling, and twenty feet of space between the edges of the room to Hooktail's feet, and he was at least sixty feet long, forty feet wide and thirty feet high. Mandy felt a bit uncertain now, while the room is too small for the dragon to fly around in, it's also too small for them to fight at a safe distance, they're even at risk of being stepped on or struck by its head or tail.

"Who dares approach me?" the dragon spoke surprising everyone. He stepped forward and let out a deafening roar.

Sperg looked panicked. "Ok! He's a lot bigger than I expected."

"He's about as big as I remember." Muttered Koops as he prepared his shield.

Hooktail spoke again. "Hm… so… you are friends of the strange-garbed one who came earlier? I didn't expect more to come steal the treasure I protect… such rashness."

"Strange-garbed one?" Mario muttered. "Did someone else come here before us?"

Koops felt incredibly nervous, but he suddenly stepped forward, though any could tell he was scared, he was trying to put on a brave face. "H-Hooktail! For fifteen years, you've terrorised Petalburg and devoured so many innocent people! Including my father! Koopley! In the name of everyone you've hurt and killed! We're here to end you for good!"

Hooktail gave off the faintest smirk. "And do you think you can defeat me? You're no different from the rest I've eaten!"

"Either way we're not gonna stop until we're dead!"

"In that case I'll just have to kill you quickly!"

Mandy took that as a sign to attack, she quickly threw an ice ball towards Hooktail, but he breathed out a large stream of fire from his mouth surprising everyone, it incinerated the ice ball effortlessly and was about to hit the team, but they all jumped in different directions.

Mario and Sperg ran alongside each other throwing fire balls at Hooktail but did almost no damage. Hooktail took notice of them but turned to the other side to see Koops with his shield on his back, went into his shell and began to dart around the place. Hooktail turned to Koops to attack him instead. As he turned his tail began to swing directly towards Mario and Sperg, Sperg dropped to the ground to avoid being hit while Mario jumped over the tail, prepared a much larger fire ball and shot it at Hooktail, it made a direct hit but it was the equivalence of slightly pushing his head, but it was enough to make Hooktail turn to him.

Junior shot his tentacles out and began to perform rapid strikes on Hooktail's side much like what he did to Boogey back on the train, but it was just as ineffective as before as Hooktail ignored Junior and turned to Mario with mouth wide open, looking as if he was about to eat him, but Mario shot a bigger fire ball right down his throat making him reel back.

"Hah! To spicy for ya!?"

Hooktail coughed up smoke looking more annoyed than hurt but took notice of his back-right leg feeling colder. Hooktail looked back to see that Mandy had thrown several ice balls on that leg making lots of frost develop, a possible attempt to freeze his leg. The dragon just smirked as he lifted his leg making the ice shatter immediately, Hooktail turned to Mandy and prepared to breathe fire, but Junior shot ten of his tentacles around Hooktail's mouth and closed it shut.

"Alright! Now for dad's trick. Hope I can do this."

Junior focused and sent forth green electricity through his tentacles which struck Hooktail, the dragon flinched implying that it hurt, but it wasn't as painful as Junior had hoped. But it was enough to let Koops throw his shield and strike his head, it bounced off and Koops dashed to catch it before it landed on the floor. Sperg continued to throw Fire Balls at Hooktail but his tail kept swaying back and forth making Sperg dodge it more than attacking.

Hooktail suddenly opened his mouth again, pushing back on the tentacles and shot a fire breath at Junior, because of his tentacles keeping a hold of Hooktail, he could hardly move, but after a quick act of instinct, he transformed his body into a metal shield to make the flames bounce off, but Junior's body was heating up fast.

Mario came out of nowhere and swung his hammer down onto Hooktail's head forcing him down and stopping his fire breath. This didn't do as much damage as Mario had hoped, but it was enough to stop him for a moment, but Hooktail recovered and swung his head at Mario like a hammer, but Mario plants his feet firmly on Hooktail and uses the momentum to jump off and shoot more fire balls.

Sperg and Mandy began firing their respective elemental balls on a different leg while Junior wrapped his tentacles around Hooktail's other leg to try and trip him up, but all three of these proved useless.

Suddenly, Goombella appeared on Hooktail's back. She was secretly behind Mario when he jumped at Hooktail and she leapt off right after Mario attacked, his attack was to simply distract Hooktail from Goombella finding a safe spot.

Goombella planted her feet firmly. ' _Ok, here goes something._ ' she cleared her throat and let out a loud shout, but because she had the badge on, her voice was replaced by loud chirping.

The moment she started chirping, Hooktail gave off a horrified look, eyes widened pupils shrunk and looked to have been sweating, knees shook and looked as if he couldn't focus. "C-C… Cricket!?" the dazed Hooktail looked around. Not knowing where the sound was coming from.

"He's scared of crickets?" asked Mandy.

Hooktail leaned slightly, looking dizzy as Goombella continued to chirp. "N-No… had… really bad food poisoning… when I ate a cricket…"

"We got him now!" exclaimed Mario, until a crushed soda can came from nowhere and smacked him in the back of the head, he looked around to see who threw it but couldn't find anyone.

Sperg tried to focus on making a bigger fire ball and threw it at Hooktail, the impact normally would've done not much, but this time it caused Hooktail to stumble back violently, as if the very sound of a cricket causes Hooktail to weaken severely.

Hooktail turned to Sperg and tried to breathe fire, but the flames were smaller and were going a bit slower, Sperg managed to move out of the way easily. Mandy and Mario jumped up and threw a punch onto Hooktail's side causing him to stumble back farther, but didn't topple over, which was thankful for Goombella who tried to keep a grip as she continued to chirp loudly.

Hooktail moved forward and tried to bite at both of them, but they jumped back easily as Junior wrapped his tentacles around his front right leg and pulled making Hooktail almost trip but try to keep his footing. Junior then sent electricity through his tentacles causing pain to Hooktail. At that point, Koops came in and threw his shield into Hooktail's back right leg causing Hooktail to finally fall onto his side. Goombella almost fell too but she quickly grabbed onto one of his wings with her mouth, unfortunately blocking off her ability to chirp.

Since the chirping stopped, Hooktail began to regain his senses and power, the electricity was still painful but not as bad as it was before, he looked around wondering why the chirping stopped, but then he took notice of Goombella on his wing. Hooktail swiftly turned back onto his feet, the force and speed of it forced Junior to let go. Goombella let go and tried to chirp again, but Hooktail suddenly began to fly up, she looked up realising he was going to crush her on the ceiling. So, she jumped off in the nick of time.

Hooktail smashed the ceiling causing it to crumble in several places and were about to fall on them. As Goombella was falling, Hooktail aimed at her and breathed fire, but Koops jumped in the way and held out his shield, but the force of the flames pushed him back landing on Goombella and the two hit the ground hard, the force had also knocked the badge off of her neckerchief.

"Oh shoot! The badge!" Goombella shouted, but before they could do anything, a piece of the ceiling landed on it crushing it.

Most of the ceiling was coming down on them forcing everyone to try and dodge the rocks. Sperg tried his best to dodge but one landed on his back pinning him down, the pain of it was also enough to diminish the Fire Flower's power from him. Junior transformed into a small bat to avoid the rocks easier, Mandy just ran avoiding them and Mario jumped to avoid them but also used his hammer to smash any that would've landed on him.

Goombella and Koops were injured from the fall and could hardly move. Koops noticed a rock about to fall on them, so as an act of bravery, he grabbed his shield and smacked Goombella away from the rocks saving her, and he quickly ducked into his shell with no time to place his shield on his back for extra protection. The rocks smashed onto his shell, thankfully Koopa shells are insanely durable, but the force still caused injuries and cracks on his shell. He was also pinned down from the weight.

Hooktail landed on the ground with great force causing a miniature earthquake, everyone stumbled around because of it, and out of nowhere, Hooktail suddenly spun around in a violent manner, using his tail to sweep at them. Everyone ducked to the ground except for Mario who couldn't get his footing back to do so, the tail suddenly slammed into him with enough force to get rid of his Fire Flower power and was sent flying out of the castle and falling towards the forest.

"MARIO!" Junior shouted as he launched his tentacles to grab him, but he missed, and Mario disappeared from sight.

Mandy saw this too and ran up to the edge of the castle wall feeling shocked, she looked down to see that he was nowhere to be seen. At that moment, she suddenly questioned herself, why would she feel concerned for Mario. While he has done good things for her, she doesn't care about him or anyone. But she snapped out of her thoughts as Junior's tentacle wrapped around her waist and pulled her away from Hooktail about to stomp on her.

Mandy realised what happened as Junior let her go, she threw more ice balls, but they were ineffective as Hooktail tried to fight Junior. "This useless power!" she mumbled. She looked to her right and realised that Mario's hammer was lying there. So, she ran for it and quickly picked it up, or at least tried to.

To her surprise, the hammer was very heavy, seeing Mario swing it around like it's nothing made her assume it was very light, but it was the opposite, she was strong enough to give it a few good swings and make it effective, but not as effective as she had hoped. Either way she began to un towards Hooktail with it in an attempt to strike his foot with it.

Sperg struggled to remove the rock that pinned him down but managed to do so. He saw Koops in his shell pinned down by the rocks, and Goombella lying behind one looking barely conscious. He ran up to Koops and pushed the rock off of him, it was hard, but he did it still. He grabbed Koops and ran up to Goombella placing Koops next to her.

"Hey, you two okay?"

Goombella opened her eyes a bit more to look at Sperg. "S-Still… fighting fit."

Koops didn't respond, Sperg and Goombella wondered if he was even conscious. Goombella struggled to get up and walked up to him, she placed the side of her head on the shell, presumably trying to listen for a heartbeat. She could hear it, but she could also hear something else, what sounded like crying.

Junior had his tentacles wrapped around Hooktail's mouth again preventing him from breathing fire, but Hooktail was spinning his head around and around making Junior spin around him. He was moving so fast he couldn't focus on channelling electricity through his tentacles since it was a concept still new to him. But once Junior was at the top of the rotation, he transformed into a giant weight and began to drop fast, attempting to hit Hooktail on the head, but Hooktail saw this and opened his mouth wide in an attempt to eat him, Junior saw this and counterattacked by transforming into a giant metal pole to keep Hooktail's mouth pried open as it tried to bite down on him.

Hooktail was distracted enough to let Mandy come in hard, she swung Mario's hammer right down onto his back-left foot, Hooktail reacted violently feeling a lot of pain through it. But Hooktail just recovered and aimed his fire breath at Mandy while Junior was still keeping his mouth open. The flames bounced around him, but his body temperature was increasing rapidly at almost an unbearable rate. Mandy herself ran from the flames as it chased her, she dropped the hammer to make herself lighter and even threw ice balls to try and slow it down, but it didn't work. Instead she continued to run.

Junior couldn't take the flames anymore and had to act quickly, he suddenly transformed into a giant double-sided knife so when Hooktail bit down, it pierced the inside of his mouth. Hooktail wailed in pain, no longer able to breathe fire, and ended up spitting Junior out who changed back to normal. He stood up looking ready to fight more, but the pain from the fire was starting to catch up with him but tried to fight all on his own.

Meanwhile, Koops was still inside his shell, crying quietly. ' _It's… it's no good… we can't beat him… of course we couldn't… why would I think otherwise… I knew all along I was just a wimp and a cry-baby… I'm not strong like my dad… I should just… find a place to hide forever… it's all I'm good for._ '

"Koops! Wake up!" shouted Goombella.

Koops felt a bit startled by Goombella's harsh voice.

"Come on Koops! You gotta stop crying! We need you!"

"Yeah! Don't make me wedgie you! I'll find a way!" said Sperg.

"B-But…" Koops muttered inside his shell. But soon he poked his head out, revealing a slight trace of blood coming from his mouth, his injuries from the debris were clear. "Just… what can we do? We lost Mario, we don't have his weakness anymore, we can't keep fighting forever."

"Then we'll just have to get stronger!" Sperg exclaimed.

Soon a burst of fire roared from the side with Mandy barely avoiding it as she ducks behind the rocks with them. Mandy looked to be a bit tired, like she was running constantly. She turned to the others. "We can't overpower that frigging dragon without the badge. We need to find a way to kill it in one hit."

"If we can find a way to destroy its wings and maybe make it fall off the tower…" said Goombella.

"Don't think that'll work, the drop's far but it's not far enough for it to kill him." Mandy replied.

Goombella began to think. "Hey, remember when Mario shot a fire ball at him on the inside?"

"Yeah, that did more damage." Said Sperg.

"I think it's interior is weaker than its skin. If we can somehow attack it from the inside…" said Goombella.

"Even better, Junior pierced the inside of its mouth. It has a wound, if we can focus a strong enough attack into the wound, I think we can pierce through its head." Mandy responded.

Goombella began to think, she then ran up to the edge of the tower and saw that the entire edge had a curved archway of sorts. She then looked at Mandy who still had her Ice Flower power, and Koops who was still in his shell. "I think I have a plan." Goombella turned to Koops. "Koops baby, yer the one who's gonna kill Hooktail!"

"W-WHAT?!"

Hooktail breathed fire on Junior again who dodged again but was getting tired. Junior turned his tentacles into cannons and shot electrical spheres at Hooktail, but another fire breath destroyed them, Junior tried to run but the flames caught him and sent him flying. He landed a good twenty feet away looking very injured. Hooktail was closing in on him and fast until…

"THINK FAST!"

Hooktail looked behind him and all he saw was a reddish blur striking him from the side and grabbing Junior taking him to safety. To everyone's shock, it was Mario, but he had brown pointed ears on his cap and a brown and black striped tail that was wagging constantly, Mario was also somehow flying.

Mandy looked surprised but went back to her emotionless demeanour. "So that's what he meant by Raccoon Leaves to have everyone fly over."

"Mario!" Goombella called. "You gotta distract him."

Mario tipped his cap in response as he let Junior down. He flew over to his hammer and caught it, then he flew past Hooktail who tried to bite onto him but missed, Mario then smacked the hammer into Hooktail's front and back right legs both hurting and annoying him.

"Catch me if you can, you big stupid gecko!"

Hooktail roared angrily as he began to flap his wings violently, then he flew out of the tower chasing after Mario. Flying after him high above the hills surrounding the castle, this could be seen by the locals of Petalburg who watched in awe. Koopie Koo walked in front of the crowd looking surprised, but she soon felt concerned for Koops.

Back at the tower, Mandy continued to freeze the curved arch with multiple ice balls, thankfully because they bounced, and Mandy saved part of her energy, she was covering the arch in ice very quickly and efficiently. Sperg was ahead of Mandy grabbing as much of the rubble and removing it from the arch as quickly as he can, making sure not even a pebble was there. In a matter of minutes, the arch was cleared of all rocks and Mandy threw even more ice balls to freeze the arch.

"Ok, we're ready!" called Mandy.

"Ok! Do it Junior!" Goombella ordered.

Junior transformed into a cannon and Koops went into his shell, entered the cannon and began to spin himself as fast as he could. Junior fired Koops launching him into the arch and began to slide across the ice, building up momentum. Mandy continued to shoot more ice balls at an even rate, to make the arch more slippery, therefore building even more momentum, going faster and faster. Junior did the same by transforming his tentacles into brushes to make the ice smoother, thus increasing his speed further.

Meanwhile, Mario continued to fly around letting Hooktail chase him, each time Hooktail got too close, he moved out of the way just in time, and each time Hooktail breathed fire, he dodged them too just as easily. Mario looked back at the tower to see Koops moving along the ice surrounding the tower at amazing speed, almost looking like a helicopter blade spinning at top speed.

He looked back to see Hooktail's teeth were right up to his feet, but Mario quickly swung his hammer at his teeth chipping all of them somewhat, Hooktail roared in pain and tried to attack Mario again as he flew back towards the tower.

Mandy looked over to Mario and Hooktail coming closer. She then turned to Junior. "On my mark!"

Sperg and Goombella jumped and waved to signal Mario to come closer, Mario smirked as he suddenly stopped flying and began to fall faster, Hooktail tried to increase his speed to catch up. Mario turned to face Hooktail and made a come here gesture mocking Hooktail. Enraged he readied to breathe fire.

"NOW!" Mandy shouted.

Junior shot his tentacles into the ice and transformed them into a ramp. Koops went up it and was rocketed into the sky aiming at Mario and Hooktail.

Just as Hooktail shot his fire, Mario wagged his tail again and flew out of the way just in time, letting Koops past and aim right for him. The flames struck Koops fiercely, but because he had built up so much momentum, he pierced through the flames with ease and didn't slow down at all, and Hooktail was blinded by his own flames engulfing Koops.

In an instant, Koops shot towards the inside of Hooktail's mouth striking the wound Junior made, and like a bullet, shot through it and by the angle, went cleanly through Hooktail's skull and flew out the other end.

"WE GOT HIM!" Sperg cheered, until he realised that the corpse of Hooktail was falling directly onto the tower.

Sperg, Goombella, Mandy and Junior immediately made a run for the doors. Hooktail slammed through the remains of the ceiling and landed in the centre of the tower on his back, the floors cracked tremendously, any more force and it would've caved in. They leaned against the door watching Hooktail lie motionless.

Meanwhile, Mario flew towards the flying Koops who had run out of momentum and was about to fall into the forest, Mario caught him in time however and began to fly back to the tower. Koops climbed out of his shell looking around and seeing Mario.

"Did… did we win?"

Mario smiled. "Yep, we won. We couldn't have done it without you."

* * *

Mario and Koops had returned to the tower with the others, everyone was tired and hurt, but all of them looked at the deceased Hooktail.

Koops let out a light chuckle, he was the most excited. "W-wow… we… we actually pulled it off! Fifteen years of torment from that dragon, now it's finally over."

"Yeah! We rule! And that stupid dragon thought it's beat us!" gloated Sperg.

"It almost did." Said Goombella. "We couldn't overpower it, so we had to work together to come up with a way to kill him in one shot."

"Yeah, I didn't even know if it would've worked, but we had to try something." Said Junior.

"Are you idiots finished?" everyone looked over to Mandy. "It's all fine and well that we finally killed that dragon, but the reason we came here to begin with was to find the Crystal Star. We haven't found hide or hair of the thing."

Mario tipped his hat a little. "She's right. Where could it be?"

Suddenly there was a loud gurgling sound coming from Hooktail, everyone jumped at this and jumped back readying for another fight. But they saw something climbing out of Hooktail's throat, and in an instant, Hooktail coughed up something blue that flew up and landed not far from them.

To their surprise, it was a blue Koopa Shell. It looked as durable as ever, but the colour had faded in several sections. But what surprised them even more was that it started moving, two arms popped out, a pair of feet with old blue boots, and out came a Koopa's head with a brown bushy beard and thick bushy eyebrows.

The Koopa looked around confused, but then he raised both his arms in excitement. "YAAAAAAAH! I'M OUT! I'M FINALLY OUT!"

Koops' eyes shrunk, recognising this Koopa. "Woah… it… it can't be!"

The Koopa looked ahead at Koops. He too had a similar reaction. "Eh?"

Koops stepped forward. "Da… DAD!?" Koops suddenly ran to his father to give him a hug.

His father immediately responded by hugging back. "K-KOOPS! M-MY SON!" Both were immediately had tears in their eyes. Everyone looked surprised, considering Koops told them his father was dead.

Koops' father moved Koops off him to look at him better. "Wow son, you've grown so much since the last I saw you."

"Y-Yeah but who cares… have you been inside Hooktail this entire time!?"

"Well I wasn't in Dry Dry Desert this entire time that's for sure!" Koops father chuckled. He noticed the others and smiles. "Well now, friends of Koops. Call me Koopley, I'm his dad."

"How did you survive being inside Hooktail's belly this whole time?" asked Goombella.

Koopley chuckled as he flexed and showed off his back. "Koopa shells missy! I just hid inside it waiting for my time to escape! Thankfully mine is tougher than your garden variety!"

Mario chuckled. "Well this is the best-case scenario, Koops defeated Hooktail and got his dad back."

Koopley looked a bit surprised and looked over to Hooktail, then back to his son. "Y-You beat him?"

Koops chuckled nervously. "W-Well I had a little help."

Koopley responded by hugging him harder. "You fantastic young Koopa! I would've been satisfied with anyone taking him down! But by you is the best wish I could ask for!"

"Oh dad!"

Mandy rolled her eyes and stepped forward. "Look, this reunion is nice and all, but we came here for two reasons. We're looking for a Crystal Star."

"Crystal Star?" Koopley let go of Koops, popped his right arm into his shell and pulled out something that surprised them. "You mean this?" In Koopley's hand was a silvery gemstone shaped like a star, it sparkled beautifully and was the size of a basketball.

"What?! Where?!" exclaimed Koops.

"I found it inside Hooktail's belly. Nice huh? I kept it as a souvenir. Is this what you're looking for?"

"Looks like it." Said Mario.

"Perfect! Just perfect! You can have it!"

"Really?"

"Come now! You're Koops friends! I won't take no for an answer! Please take it!"

Mario gently walked up and took the star from Koopley and held it up high.

* * *

 **YOU GOT A CRYSTAL STAR!**

* * *

Mario and friends finally got a Crystal Star in the castle after defeating Hooktail. Koops even reunited with his long-lost father, whom he thought was dead. Yet they were unable to learn anything about the whereabouts of the princess or the kids from Endsville. Where could they be? Yes… their adventure has only begun.

* * *

 **END OF CHAPTER**


	23. 3-1:Princess and Grim

Far from any civilised locations, there exists a fortress, this fortress was built in a strange fashion that doesn't exist anywhere else, made from metals that are not recognised and an atmosphere not familiar or friendly. Inside this fortress had many rooms, but one in particular is the main focus. It was a large circular room with dark grey walls and patterns, with only a throne near the end.

The doors open and out appears two of the same red cloaked men who attacked Goombella and Junior in Rogueport, and with them was a young woman with long golden hair, beautiful blue eyes and wore a pink royal dress. This was none other than Princess Peach, her hands were restrained by a strange bendable metal rope that was held onto by the two cloaked men, despite looking like she could break free, she chose not to struggle. She along with the two goons walked up towards the throne, next to the throne was Lord Crump looking healthier than before.

"Oh great, exalted Grodus! We brought the Princess Peach as you ordered, sir!" said one of the goons.

Peach looked at the throne to see a strange individual sitting on it. A purple and black cloaked figure larger than Lord Crump, he had a large black dome for a head with a clear blue section that allowed one to see all sorts of strange machinery inside the dome. White cloth coming out of his head and a purple collar that circled around it, this being also held a golden sceptre with a blue crystal ball on it. This man was Lord Grodus.

"Well, well, well my pet." Said Grodus in a calm robotic voice. "Isn't it about time you told us where the map is?"

Peach took notice of another individual by the wall, it was a green skinned man with a long nose and pointed ears, he wore a skin-tight purple and grey metallic jumpsuit. He gave a look of anger as he looked at the corner.

"Princess Peach. You will speak when spoken to." Grodus speaks up again, just as calm as last time.

"I'm telling you. I don't know." Peach responded, looking back at Grodus while trying to remain calm but she felt intimidated by all of this.

Grodus stood up from his throne and walked down. "There's no point in trying to hide it, silly girl. We know you had it, we KNOW this… Trust me it's very much in your best interest to be absolutely honest with us." He then placed the pointed end of his sceptre under Peach's chin making her tip her head up slightly. "We X-Nauts are not all rainbows and lollipops, I assure you. We're quite nasty."

Peach felt a bit of resentment and gently smacks the sceptre from her chin, but the X-Nauts or Grodus didn't responded negatively to this, they instead shrugged off her action as Grodus stepped back.

Soon a large holographic screen appears beside them showing another X-Naut, he crossed his arms as a form of salute before speaking. "Grodus, sir. I have news. Two to be exact."

"Report at once." Grodus responded.

"The first is the separation procedure for the Grim Reaper has worked successfully." The screen changed showing several small technological looking jars with blue liquid holding pieces of skeletal body parts. "The liquid is negating the magic perfectly."

"Excellent." Said Grodus. "The last thing we need is that bag of bones causing problems."

"And we have the scythe perfectly secured." Said the green man as he walked up calmly, his stance seems to imply that he is of equal authority to Grodus or is at least a higher rank like Lord Crump. "I hardly expected we needed to waste such resources on that ol' dork Grim, but I guess it's better to be safe than sorry."

Grodus turned to the man. "Trust me Boogey, it's hardly that wasteful of a resource." He then turned back to the screen showing the X-Naut. "And the second report?"

"Well… it's bad news. The Crystal Star we thought Hooktail had… well someone nabbed it."

Grodus and Boogey both looked surprised. "What? WHAT did you say? Someone else if after the Crystal Stars!?" Grodus asked losing his calm demeanour. "And he defeated that Hooktail Creature you say? Speak, soldier!"

"Yes, sir! Sorry, sir. See there's more too. According to the report… it was six individuals. A Goomba girl with a helmet, a Koopa with a blue shield and four humans. One adult, three children. The adult is a moustached dude in a red hat and blue overalls. A blonde girl in a red dress, a muscular boy in a white vest and a woolly hat, and a black-haired kid in a black jacket."

' _Moustache... red hat and blue overalls?_ ' Peach mumbled quietly. "Mario?"

Grodus turned to her, despite how quiet she was, he heard it all. "Excuse me? Mario?"

"Oh no." Peach mumbled, not expecting Grodus to hear.

"Wait!" Boogey stepped forward. "Mario… that's that jerk who took the Nightmare Ruby from me!"

"So, this is the man you spoke of?" Grodus asked. "And it appears this Princess knows of Mario." He then began to chuckle. "This fool matters not at all. I'll know all about him before long, that I promise."

"Careful, that chubby guy's tough." Said Boogey. "And something else, he's also the protector of the Child of Darkness."

"I see. So, this fool has not only the Magical Map, a Crystal Star, the Nightmare Ruby and the Child of Darkness. This man has put quite a target on himself. In any case, I grow bored of talking to the Princess. Take her to her room."

"Yes sir!" the two X-Nauts each tighten their grip on the rope binding Peach to be ready to move her.

"And men! Take very good care of Princess Peach. Understand? She is not to be harmed."

"Oh sir, what about the Grim Reaper's head?" asked the other X-Naut on the screen. "We've received complaints that he won't shut up in the lab and it's distracting the R&D staff."

Peach began to suspect something, that the Grim Reaper could be an ally if they are keeping him like this. So, she suddenly speaks up. "Um?"

"Yes Peach?" asked Grodus.

"If you intend on taking very good care of me, I'll at least require a bit of company. I don't mind having the Grim Reaper's head in my room."

Boogey spoke up. "Request refused, I don't want Grim to have any-"

"Request granted." Grodus interrupted, surprising Boogey. "She is permitted to have the Grim Reaper's head in her room."

"Um, yes sir?" said the X-Nauts as they begin to take Peach to her room, going behind the doors and disappearing.

"What are you doing Grodus?" asked Boogey.

"He is unable to do anything in the containment jar. So, I say we humour her. Besides, I need my R&D staff working at optimal value, especially considering you destroyed a good handful of my Yux Drones." Said Grodus.

"Hm, fine." Boogey responded.

Grodus then turned to Lord Crump. "Well Lord Crump… if this Mario character has the map, then it's highly likely he'll find the Crystal Star we're hunting in the Boggly Woods. You must return there immediately and hasten the excavation. It must not fail."

Lord Crump suddenly jumped a bit. "Wuzzat? Oh! Yeah sure! Roger Grodus! And with that… POW! I'm gone!" He then began to march out of the room, what sounded like he was also humming his theme tune.

Boogey suddenly gets a ringing sound from his pocket, and he takes out a small device. "Boogey speaking." He said to the device.

"Hey Boogey. I got the reports. We've also located Scythe 2.0 and some of your missing crew." Said Creeper through the device.

"Good, send them to my work place at once. And send a team out to get Scythe 2.0 and the crew." Boogey places the device back in his pocket and looks over to Grodus who looks down a bit as if he was pondering.

"I wonder if sending Lord Crump there alone is wise? He is a bit… out there."

Boogey speaks up. "I'll let some of my men accompany the X-Nauts if necessary. Now if you'll excuse me, I have some reports to check out." He leaves for the door.

"Hm, I suppose the crew of monsters would help but…" Grodus then looked up and directed himself at one of the X-Nauts by the door. "X-Naut! I summon you!"

The X-Naut walked up to Grodus, saluted and spoke up. "You rang, dude? I mean, sir? You rang, sir, Grodus, dude? Grodus? Sir Grodus, sir?"

"Shut up!" Grodus interrupted. "Go get the Shadow Sirens over here!"

The X-Naut looked surprised. "The Sh-Shadow Sirens sir?! But they-"

"I don't care how you planned to end that sentence, fool. Go get them. Now."

"Gotcha." The X-Naut saluted and walked out of the room.

There was silence for a few seconds until an old woman's voice sounding ominous filled the air. "The honourable Grodus has need for us? Then we arrive without delay."

In an instant, three dark shadows appeared on the ground, and three creatures emerged from those shadows, all of them had purple skin, white gloves and thin tails for legs that creep into the shadows they've casted. The one in front was the eldest and the shortest of the three, having a long nose, a mean grin and light purple puffy hair under a blue pointed witch hat. The middle one was the tallest and was very fat, she had short orange hair under a yellow pointed hat. And the youngest one was middle size, had a feminine figure and lovely curly pink hair under a red pointed hat.

The blue hatted one let out a wicked cackle before speaking. "Pray tell, did the Princess tell you where the map is?"

Grodus responded with slight anger in his tone. "Still your tongue, Beldam. We would already have it if you'd snatched her earlier. But now, since you missed your chance, some poor fool named Mario has the map."

Although the eldest named Beldam was being told off, she continued to remain her wicked self. "It wasn't my fault, truly. There were too many prying eyes there. Too many. Besides, a strange old man showed up at the moment of truth, and we had to retreat." She chuckled a bit more. "Why worry? All we need to do is find this Mario and steal the map, yes?"

"Indeed. That is YOUR duty." Grodus responded. "Must I remind you, that map is vital to the X-Naut plan… in addition…"

The three Shadow Sirens looked a bit confused. "Go on?" Beldam replied.

"He also has the Child of Darkness under his protection."

Beldam immediately lost her smile, looking as if she shivered slightly. "I… see… So, we must get the map and the Child of Darkness?"

"Indeed, he is also in possession of Boogey's Nightmare Ruby, according to him it is also vital. Although getting the Nightmare Ruby is a lower priority than the Map and Child of Darkness, at least try to get it too."

Beldam responded. "Even I am unsure of this Nightmare Ruby's purpose, but we will try to relinquish it from him."

"Good. Now I will have all my men prepare all available information on this Mario… for now, hear me, Beldam. You Shadow Sirens must take care of this troublemaker."

Beldam chuckled again. "Fear not, sire. I, Beldam shall return with what you seek." Beldam immediately turned to her two sisters. "Let's go my lovelies! Marilyn! Vivian! Come! We've got a job to do!" she then immediately sunk into the shadows.

"Guhhhhh!" Marilyn responded before sneaking into the shadows.

Vivian merely chuckled before she did the same thing.

* * *

Peach has just been sent into her holding room, which consisted of a few lockers, benches and a bed, it also had a door leading to another room. The two X-Nauts gently untie the rope on her wrists, then a third X-Naut appeared with one of the containment jars with a grumpy looking skull in it.

"Here you are, your majesty." Said the X-Naut placing the jar on the floor. "Dinner will be at seven." With that the three X-Nauts left the room.

Peach looked down at the jar with the skull in it and she picked it up. She saw the skull presumably speaking to her, but the liquid inside was muffling him so all she could hear was a strange inaudible noise. She looked around the jar to see if there was an opening, but she did notice a keypad on the top of the jar with a handle.

The skull notices what she spotted and made a loud yell to get her attention, Peach looked down at the skull to see that he was writing the number combination with his tongue on the glass. Though it didn't appear long, she got the numbers as "204863"

Peach typed in the numbers and the handle popped up slightly, so she grabbed it, twisted the handle and removed the lid, she gently put her two fingers into the liquid and hook them on the skull's eye sockets to lift him out.

The skull gasped slightly, dripping with the liquid looking more like slime than water. "Tanks, young lady."

Peach, didn't respond, instead she made her way to the other room and opened the door, there she saw a bathtub with a shower, a sink and a toilet. Peach immediately placed the confused skull into the bath and turned on the shower, she took the handle and began to wash the liquid off the skull, he didn't respond either, he just hummed slightly enjoying it. Once it was off, she turned off the shower, took a nearby towel and dried off the skull. In a minute he was squeaky clean.

Peach slightly chuckled. "Now you can thank me."

"Ha, ha! How nice of ya. Well now I'm really tankful. Name's Grim by de way. De Grim Reaper to be exact."

"Nice to meet you, my name is Princess Peach." She returned to the room and placed Grim on the table while she sat on the bed. "You're not from this world, are you?"

"Ya guessed it. I'm from a world called Earth. We ended up here after dat big nose jerk Boogey tried to destroy me and the kids I was with."

"I… met a guy referring to himself as Boogey. He was furious about Mario."

"Mario?"

"He's… um… he's my sweetheart."

Grim looked a bit surprised, but then he smiled. "Heh, what a lucky guy. So why is Boogey furious with your boyfriend?"

"He said something about Mario getting this Nightmare Ruby off him."

Grim's eye sockets widened in shock. "Wait, Mario stole the Nightmare Ruby?!"

"I guess…?"

"Then we're in luck, that Nightmare Ruby is what gives Boogey insane powers. But if Mario was able to get it off him, it means he either managed te steal it from him before it activated, or he defeated his monstrous form."

Peach chuckled. "I like to imagine Mario beat Boogey while he was in this monstrous form. Mario is really strong." She soon felt concerned. "But… I'm also worried for him. They are sending out men to find him, and they're after the map I gave him, and this Nightmare Ruby, and something called the Child of Darkness."

"Child of Darkness?"

"Do you know anything about the Child of Darkness?"

"I've been alive since the dawn of time in my world, and from everything I've learned from over de years, nothing Child of Darkness related has ever came to pass. It must be something from your world."

"Perhaps… but Boogey seemed to have been talking about someone with Mario."

"Huh? Could it be…?"

Before Grim could finish his sentence, both of them jumped slightly at the sound of the door opening, the same door that leads out of the holding room.

"Huh?" asked Grim.

"They opened up by themselves?" asked Peach.

"Let's check it out."

Peach agrees and picked up Grim and slowly walked towards the door. She went through them and they closed behind her. She looked to see if anyone was around but no one. "What's doing this?"

This new room was a long corridor, in the middle of the room was the door to the elevator, she walked up to it, but it didn't respond to any button inputs, she noticed another door on the far end, so she walked up towards it. There they suddenly opened the moment she got close enough to them.

"How do I keep making these doors open? How odd." Peach muttered.

She walked through the doors and it led her to a strange room with a giant computer, it was quite dark, so it was hard to see, but the lights suddenly turned on by themselves surprising both of them.

"Hello, Princess Peach." Said a computerised voice.

Peach and Grim looked around. "Huh? What? Who said that? Where are you?"

"How amusing. I am right here, before your eyes." Both of them realised the voice was coming from the computer itself. "I am this laboratory's main computer. I am the TEC-XX. Many call me TEC. You may. Sir Grodus created me to be a perfect computer, one that is flawless in its reason."

Peach walked up to TEC looking concerned. "Grodus… wait, he's that awful dome-headed thing who interrogated me, right?"

"Sir Grodus is not awful. He is a very great person. He is marvellous." TEC responded.

"Well I don't think so." Said Peach. "But I doubt I'll change your mind."

"Well Dome-Chrome here did build him, so I bet he programmed a bit of biased in him." Grim chuckled. "So anyway, ya got a reason to be callin us here?"

TEC responded. "An unusual program deviation occurred when I observed Princess Peach in Grodus' room. My higher-brain circuitry malfunctioned and nearly overheated at your image. Also, an unidentified impulse sped through my processors. These events are new to me."

Peach and Grim looked at each other confused before looking back at TEC.

"There is more to this phenomenon, as well. I ran diagnostic programs… and their solution was… I want to know more about you. I want to observe you. Such a compulsion has no precedence. Cause unknown. I, the perfect computer… I must diagnose this unusual situation. I will not fail. That is why I led you here."

"Wait… did you just say… you want to observe me? You want to know more about me?" Peach was silent trying to ponder what the answer could be, she suddenly jumped a bit in shock almost dropping Grim.

"Agh. Careful yer majesty." Said Grim feeling panicked.

"Could it be that you…" Peach fell silent for a second before speaking up. "No! Impossible! It can't be. You're a computer."

"What has happened to me?" asked TEC. "If you know my malfunction, you must tell me of it."

"Oh… I couldn't really… because." Peach began to mumble. "…It's just too weird."

"Please tell me. Please." TEC responded. "I am the world's best computer. I am perfect. There should not be anything I do not understand. Please."

Peach rubbed the back of her head feeling very embarrassed. "Well… you know… maybe… is it possible that, well… you're in love… with me?"

There was a strong awkward silence in the room, but that was soon broken by Grim's laughter, he suddenly jumped out of Peach's hands and landed on the computer desk. "Ha! Love? Come on Princess, surely you don't believe a computer is capable of love, right?"

"Well-"

"Princess Peach… what is… love… I cannot compute this." Asked TEC.

"You don't know what love is?" asked Peach. "Love… how do I explain?"

"Dis should be good." Smirked Grim.

"Love tells you when you want to be with a person forever. It makes you happy just to see that person happy, smiling… having fun. When you love someone, you will do anything to help when he or she is in trouble."

TEC responded. "Happiness? Fun? I have definitions of these words, but… my programming is insufficient. There should be nothing I cannot comprehend. I am a perfect computer."

"Comprehend love? Love is not something you comprehend, TEC, you feel it." Said Peach.

"To be fair." Said Grim. "Machines don't need to understand love, it's an unnecessary thing for those who are technically not alive."

"Grim!?" Peach spoke up, feeling he was a bit rude.

TEC responded. "Grim is not wrong, I'm afraid. However… Princess Peach, will you teach me to feel this thing you call love?"

"What? But why would you want to?"

"I am perfect. There must be nothing I cannot comprehend. Nothing. That is why you must help me understand this thing called love, please." Said TEC. "If you have any wishes I can grant you in exchange, I can grant them."

Grim spoke up. "Well now dat you mention it-"

"But of course, I am unable to grant such a wish as letting you escape or delivering the pieces of Grim's body down to him."

"Dang it." Grim grumbled.

"Now wait a minute." Peach exclaimed. "You X-Jerks kidnapped me like common Koopas! And now you ask me to teach you the meaning of love! I should spit on your screen! You'll grant my wish! Ha! Why should I believe you!"

Grim was surprised by her sudden outburst. ' _Spicy!_ ' He thought.

TEC spoke up. "I understand you are angry. That emotion I comprehend. You need not teach me now. But I must learn of this. I must. There is no alternative. I must be a perfect computer. That is why if you would just consider teaching me, I will grant your wishes. Do you understand me, Princess Peach? Now tell me your wish."

Peach and Grim looked at each other before looking back to TEC. "Are you sure?" Peach asked. "Well, ok… here goes… can I contact someone? The sooner the better."

"Yes of course you may." TEC responded. "Use my communicator to send wireless mail to anywhere you want. If you so wish, you can use it right now. It is no trouble. Use the keyboard in front of you. Enter the recipient, address and message."

Grim notices the keyboard behind him so he hops out of the way to let Peach use it. "This keyboard? All right. Let me give it a shot." Peach began to type at the keyboard. The way she does so is surprisingly elegant, for a princess to be using high technology seemed a bit off.

Grim soon spoke up. "If the kids are with Mario, better let them know I'm here."

"Yes of course. I intended to." Peach soon finished typing, took a step back and spoke to TEC. "Ok, it's ready. Can you send it?"

The screen showed a little envelop going from left to right before making a few beeping noises. "The message has been sent." TEC responded. "For the time being, you may return to your room. I will call you again when I ask you something."

Peach hardly responded, instead she just gently picked up Grim and walked towards the door, as they opened by themselves, she turned to TEC. "Um… ok then, good night." She walked through the door and back into the hallway.

"Good night, Princess Peach." TEC responded.

As Peach re-entered her room, she placed Grim on the table and sat on the bed again. "Um, Grim?"

"Yes?"

"Could you explain to me everything that's happened to you and your friends."

"Tis a long story, ya sure?"

"Of course, I have time."


	24. 3-2:Meanwhile at Bowser's Castle

In the far reaches of Dark Land, one of the eight regions of the Mushroom Kingdom, there exists a dark castle bigger than that of any other, King Bowser's Castle. Home to many evildoers like bad Koopa Troopas, Hammer Bros, Magikoopas, Koopatrols and so on and so forth, but more importantly, King Bowser himself.

We find the evil king walking across the hallway, not really caring who he got in the way, in fact everyone quickly moved out of his way. He received word of an intruder and they've arrested him, but instead of leaving him to rot, he mentioned something about a powerful item and Bowser decided to at least give him a listen.

Bowser entered the main prison and held his arms out and a loud laughter. "Bowser, the Mighty Koopa King, has arrived! Hold your applause minions!"

At that point a Boo with a bowtie showed up to greet Bowser. "A pleasure as always Lord Bowser. We've got the prisoner in Cell 14."

"Good." He began to walk alongside the Boo towards the designated cell. "So, tell me, how did he get into my castle?"

"Witnesses claimed he just teleported here under some kind of magic spell."

"So, we're dealing with some kind of wizard or something?"

The Boo chuckled nervously. "Well I would agree… however…"

"HEY WAAAITER!" called an annoying voice. Bowser arrived at Cell 14 to see the prisoner was a young boy with a balloon-like pink nose and beady eyes. "Can I get more of this greeny yellow ice cream? It's delishous! Though it needs to be colder and have less carrots." he said while holding a bucket.

The Boo leaned closer to Bowser mumbling. "That's the puke bucket he's been eating out of."

Bowser gave off a disgusted expression before walking closer to the cell and slammed his foot down, the force of it shook the ground somewhat getting the boy's attention.

"Oh hi! My name's Billy! I like long walks on the beach! Fighting crime and solving mysteries under the name of Dab Master! But don't tell anyone!"

"Ok listen here Billy! You mentioned some kind of powerful item! And you better cough up that info before I feed you to the Chain Chomps!" said Bowser aggressively.

"Powerful…?" Billy thought for a moment, then smiled. "Oh yeah! The Nightmare Ruby! It turned that bully Boogey into a big evil monster!"

Bowser crossed his arms. "Hmph! So, a gem that makes people much stronger! I kinda dig that! So where is it and what does it look like!?"

"Uuuummmmmmmm… I forgot." Said Billy bluntly.

Bowser than shoved his arm through the bars and poked his spiked claw into Billy's nose almost popping it like a balloon. "Well you better start remembering! I'm a busy evil king and I don't like time wasters! I've got a four-o clock evil gloating to do as well as a five-o clock scheming and I don't wanna be late for either of them!"

"Lord Bowser. There you are." Bowser, Billy and the Boo all looked to the right to see an old Magikoopa clad in purple, Kammy Koopa. She slowly walked up to Bowser. "I requested for you to meet me at the throne room. Did you get distracted?"

"Yeah." Bowser tilts his head towards Billy. "This little puke-muncher here broke into my castle and said something about a powerful magic item called a Nightmare Ruby."

"Hm, Nightmare Ruby? I've never heard of such a thing." Kammy looked over to Billy.

"Hiya Granny!" yelled Billy. "Are you this hotel manager's mom? You look old enough to!"

"G-Granny!? Old!? Oh, you little rapscallion! TAKE THIS!" Kammy took her wand and fired a magic shot through the bars, the shot struck Billy sending him to the wall. He just sat there looking dizzy.

"I like ponies." He said looking dazed.

Bowser laughed a little before turning to Kammy. "Anyway, why did you want me to meet you in the throne room?"

"Well, it's news but I can say it here." Kammy clears her throat. "It's my displeasure to inform you that Mario, that scum is off to a town called Rogueport."

Bowser responded by blowing a raspberry. "Am I Mario's babysitter? I don't care what he's doing! Are you going to call me every time that guy blows his nose, or what? Sheesh!"

"Yeah!" Billy responded walking up to the bars. "You should be informing him every time he sneezes or picks his nose, there's the goldmine there!"

Kammy responded by blasting another magic shot at him sending him back again. She then turned to Bowser. "In any case, my lord. Apparently, Mario is hunting for an amazing treasure."

"Treasure!?" Bowser exclaimed.

"Yes, Mario has gone in search of star-shaped jewels known as the Crystal Stars. I'm researching just what they are… but there's no question of their high value."

Bowser smirked as he crossed his arms. "The Crystal Stars, you say? They sound like good world-conquering tools! I want 'em! Very good, continue researching them, you brainy hag, you!"

"Wait a cotton-picking minute." Said Billy walking up to the bars again. "And how do you know these Crystal Star thingies are more powerful than the Nightmare Ruby? Boogey turned into this great big monster! He can destroy stuff! Grim's scythe couldn't hurt him! He was next to invisible!"

"I think you mean invincible." Kammy muttered. "In any case, we can hardly trust the words of a little idiot who thinks this castle is a hotel!"

"Um, excuse me?" Everyone looked to see another Magikoopa show up, he was holding a crystal ball.

"Yes? What is it?" asked Kammy.

"Well… I did a bit of spying on Mario and I spotted something… unusual." The Magikoopa showed them the crystal ball and it began to portray an image. It was of Mario in a green field and he was alongside a Goomba, a Koopa and three human children."

"So, Mario's got a little posse with him? Who cares, that's not different from last time!" said Bowser.

"Hm?" the Magikoopa looked at the crystal ball again. "Oh! Sorry. Wrong scene." He mumbled a magic word and showed them the crystal ball again. This time it was of Mario holding a red brilliant cut gemstone with a yellow spherical gem inside it, then it showed him talking to the human children.

"Huh? What's that gem!?" asked Bowser.

"HI MANDY!" Billy called looking at the crystal ball. "Who's your friend?! And why does he have the Nightmare Ruby!?"

"Wait? This the Nightmare Ruby? And Mario has it?" asked Kammy.

Bowser laughs. "Well that makes it easier. We'll just ambush him and take the Crystal Stars and the Nightmare Ruby from him."

"Oh, right." The Magikoopa spoke up again. "I forgot, I bring other news. Princess Peach has been kidnapped."

Bowser's smirk turned to shock. "WHAT!? How!? When!? WHERE!? Who'd do such a thing!? I mean besides me?!"

"We're not sure just yet, but all we know she's been kidnapped."

Bowser growled furiously. "Under NO circumstances is ANYONE allowed to kidnap her without MY say-so!" He turned to Kammy. "Kammy! I will not stand for this! Clear my schedules! I'm going to Rogueport and I'm going to kidnap her back!"

"Yes, my lord." As Bowser runs off, Kammy digs into her robes and takes out an Etch a Sketch with schedules on it and shakes them off.

Just outside the castle, we find Bowser in his infamous Koopa Clown Car flying away. In a short amount of time however, Kammy caught up to him on her flying broom, but Bowser noticed that she had Billy tied up hanging from her broom singing some kind of song badly.

"Why'd you bring him?" Bowser asked.

"I was thinking. Billy seems to know of these human kids that were with Mario. Perhaps we can do a hostage situation for the Crystal Stars and Nightmare Ruby."

"Hm, worth a shot, I guess! Just shut him up!"


	25. 3-3:Phineas's Story

Darkness filled his vision, no sounds could be heard, however, Phineas' senses began to return to him, all he could hear however was birds singing, and children laughing and playing. As his sense of touch returned, he felt as if he was suspended in mid-air. His sense returned fully, and he looked around, realising that his backpack was snagged onto a tree branch and was hanging from it.

"What? How did-" He suddenly felt his head in pain, remembering he was thrown through the train window and went through some kind of strange energy that hurt everything around him, he could've sworn he was going to die.

He looked ahead and found where he was. He was in a local park, but no one was human at all. Some were mushroom-headed folk, some were humanoid turtles, some of them had wings, there were even dog-like people and peach coloured dogs with big lips. He knew without a doubt he wasn't on earth anymore, but he had no idea where he was.

The creatures looked amazing, and the green grass accompanied by the bright blue sky made the scene look beautiful, seeing the flowers and park play areas just reminded him of days when he was younger. But he grew concerned for his brother and friends, Boogey claimed he let them go, but he wasn't sure he could trust him. He also felt bad for hurting and kidnapping Mandy and Grim like that, hoping they made it out alright.

Soon Phineas heard humming, he looked below him to see what looked like a human. This human was five-foot eight, really fat, wore a yellow shirt and hat with a W emblem on it, and had purple overalls with green pointed shoes, he had a big pink nose, a zig-zagged moustache and pointed ears. He was humming a strange tune to himself while he had one finger in his nose.

"H-Hey!" Phineas called. The man looked around confused. "Up here!" The man looked up and spotted him. "Um, hi. Can you let me down? I'm kinda stuck."

"What's in it for me?" the man responded in a gruff tone as he took his finger out of his nose.

"Um?" Phineas had no idea how to respond to that.

"Hmph. Some dumb kid you are. Asking for help yet have nothing in return." The man laughed.

"Uhh… I've got a sandwich in my bag?"

The man's interest perked up a little. "What kind?"

"It's uhh… ham, lettuce and a bit of garlic."

"Garlic!?" the man exclaimed. He then walked up to the tree Phineas was hanging from. He threw a punch into the tree and the entire thing shook violently. Phineas didn't expect this fat man to be so strong, but his large muscles were evident.

The branch snapped, and his backpack ripped open slightly and he fell from the tree with some papers flying out, he landed on the ground hard with the man laughing. "Um, thanks."

"Whatever. Now sandwich me kid." He said aggressively.

"S-Sure." Phineas was intimidated but he did so anyway. He took off his backpack to reach for his sandwich in a plastic wrapping and handed it to the man.

He was about to take it until he noticed one of the papers from his bag flying in front of him, so he grabbed it and began to read it. After a few seconds, he mumbled. "Cyclopes… Ruby?"

"Oh right, I forgot I had that." Said Phineas. It was a slip from the museum explaining the Cyclopes Ruby. He intended to see the ruby before it got stolen and had the paper as a reminder. But then he remembered its true nature, how it was actually the Nightmare Ruby, and that Boogey used it to transform into that monster, just thinking about it gave him chills.

The man looked at Phineas and showed him the paper. "These numbers here. Is that it's value?"

Phineas dove out of his thoughts. "Um… well it's an estimated value. Several quadrillions. But uh… it went missing."

The man had a sinister smile to him as he sat down in front of him while taking the sandwich. "Tell me more."

"Huh? Um… o-ok."

In a few minutes, Phineas explained about the Cyclopes Ruby and how it was in his town, but a few days ago, Boogey kidnapped his brother Ferb, his girlfriend Isabella and his friends, Buford and Baljeet and forced him to steal the Ruby and bring it to him in Wrail Village, when Mandy was there, Boogey forced him to knock her out to bring her with them. He then explained that Boogey betrayed him and sent him here.

Although, he didn't mention that it was actually called the Nightmare Ruby and it could turn people into monsters. He deliberately kept that info because he was afraid to let this man know of its power, if he knew it was only a money-making thing then it might be safer for him. The man showed a little bit of interest in everything else, but was more intrigued by the Cyclopes Ruby, but he listened anyway.

"And… that's everything." Said Phineas.

The man had just finished the sandwich. "Hm, so this super valuable ruby is now somewhere in this world."

"Yeah, but I don't know where it is or how to get back home or know if my friends are ok."

The man stood up and turned around. "Well whatever, thanks for the info, now I'm gonna get rich."

Just as the man started to walk away, Phineas stood up, placed his backpack back on and followed him. "W-Wait… you're just gonna leave me here?"

"Yup. I gotta find me that ruby. Something that valuable will surely get me back my castle."

"Do you even know where to find it?"

The man stopped realising this, then he turned to face Phineas. "I suppose not. If your story is true, then I'll have to go around the world to find it."

Phineas felt as if he could hardly trust this man, but it's not like he had a choice. "Um… look… I… I really don't know where to go, I'm on my own so… do you mind if I stay with you until I find a way, I'll even help you find the Cyclopes Ruby."

The man laughed loudly. "Ha! And why would I bring a little twerp with me? Your sandwich was delicious, but I don't need a cook."

"Um, I'm a really good inventor. I've built all kinds of cool inventions!" Phineas started to feel confident, talking about his machines. "From giant rollercoasters to spaceships, theme parks and even a giant robot dog. I could build you some stuff to make the hunt easier!"

The man was silent for a moment, but then he turned around and did a follow me gesture. "I'm gonna put you to the test, got it?"

Phineas felt excited as he followed the man again. "Of course. Oh… my name's Phineas by the way, what's your name?"

The man was silent, but he soon responded. "Name's Wario."

* * *

After half an hour of walking, they arrived at a small house with the name Wario on the mailbox in front of it. It was small, and a bit broken at places, but the nicest thing there was a four-seater open roof purple car, double frontal headlights and a zigzag emblem on the front resembling Wario's moustache.

"Ok kid, you said you're good at inventing, does that include repairing?" asked Wario.

"Of course."

"Good." Wario walked up to the car and opened the hood showing the engine. "My car's not working as awesomely as it used to, bad engine, rusted joints, parts needing replacing, tyres fixing. Get it? If you can fix my baby up to its former glory, I'll let you tag along." He then pointed to a scrap pile and a tool kit beside the garage. "There's your stuff, ok. Now get to it."

"With pleasure." Phineas responded feeling happy as he ran to the tool kit, then back to the car and began working on it.

"Don't slack off either, I gotta make a call." Wario then proceeded to enter his house.

Twenty minutes had passed, and Phineas was still working on the repairs while Wario sat at a nearby bench reading a magazine about various types of cakes, giving off a slight droll every time he examined one of the cakes. Soon his reading was interrupted by two people walking towards him.

One was a very tall lanky individual with a pink nose, a moustache that pointed straight and bent ninety-degrees upward, he wore a purple shirt and hat with black overalls and orange pointed shoes. Holding his hand was a girl a bit younger than Phineas, she had short black hair with two very long black ponytails with an orange five-pointed crown, she wore a small red dress with a neckerchief with a skull accessory on it, long black socks and red shoes.

"You took yer time." Said Wario walking up to them, but only just noticing the girl. "Wah? Waluigi, what the heck are you doing with Ashley?"

The man named Waluigi sighed. "I lost a bet with that old bat so now I gotta babysit Ashley for a month." Ashley was silent, she merely looked at Wario before looking straight on again.

Wario began to laugh. "Wow! You doofus! So now I gotta drag her with you too!?"

"What are ya talking about Wario?" asked Waluigi.

Wario pointed to Phineas repairing his car. "Check it, this kid just told me of a super expensive ruby called the Cyclopes Ruby! Said it was in the quadrillions."

"Q-QUADRILLIONS!?" Waluigi shouted until Wario reached to cover his mouth.

"Keep your pie-hole shut!" He moved away from Waluigi and spoke again. "Now listen, this kid said he'll help us look for it, so we're going on a treasure hunt."

"And you're really gonna bring some snot-nosed brat with us when we already have to bring another snot-nosed brat with us?" he turns to Ashley, but she wasn't there. "Uh no offenc- Wah!? Where did-"

Both Wario and Waluigi noticed Ashley had walked closer to the car and seemed to have her eyes on Phineas. He closed the hood of the car and notices Ashley. "Oh hi, my name's Phineas." He then went around to the side of the car to fix the tires. "Sorry I don't have time to talk, I need to get this done for Wario." Ashley was silent the entire time, she just continued to stare at the unsuspecting Phineas.

Wario and Waluigi walked up to the car. "You done yet?" asked Wario.

"Just one minute."

"Hm, well he ain't a bad mechanic." Said Waluigi.

"Don't praise him yet, I don't know what's he done yet." Wario responded.

"Aaaaand… done!" Phineas stepped back from the car.

Wario steps into the car and turns on the engine and it roars into life. Wario looked surprised at first, he drove forward and turned into the road, reversed, then parked into the garage again and stepped out. "Wow, it might as well be a new car."

"Yep! I fixed everything from top to bottom, and I even added a seat adjusted for the front." Wario looked back at the car to see a brand-new set of buttons for both the driver and passenger seat. "And I've even added a fuel maximiser, not only will it take in more fuel, but it will make it last longer than normal."

Wario was silent, but he had a look of amazement. He merely turned to Phineas and surprisingly enough, rubbed his head with his hand feeling proud. "Alright kid. You're in!"

"Well that's all well and good, but where is this quadrillion ruby?" asked Waluigi.

"How should I know, but the kid said he'll help."

Phineas now felt a little nervous. "W-Well yeah, but that's gonna take some time and…"

"Gusty Gulch." Said Ashley, with everyone looking at her surprised.

"Gusty Gulch?" asked Wario.

"That's a literal Ghost Town." Said Waluigi. "Boos live there."

"And that's where the Cyclopes Ruby is?" asked Wario.

"No. The Cyclopes Ruby is from Phineas' world, and I am sensing a strange phenomenon in Gusty Gulch. Perhaps others from his world, it is a possible lead."

Wario and Waluigi look at each other, then back to Ashley. "Um, how did you know I was from another world?" Phineas asked.

Ashley looked at Phineas. "You're giving off a strange aura that tells me so."

Waluigi shrugged. "Well we have nowhere else to go, so what the heck."

"Yeah. Alright kids! Get in the car, we're going to Gusty Gulch!" said Wario.

Phineas opened the back door for Ashley who climbed in first, then he did second. Wario got into the driver's seat and Waluigi sat in the passenger's seat. And soon Wario drove off with them and went down the road onto a new adventure.

With this, Phineas felt excited to travel around a new world, but he was also feeling concerned for his family who are back home. Hoping they're alright, but right now all he can do is help his new friends find the Cyclopes Ruby and hopefully find a way home. But as they drove, he continued to worry whether or not his friends were safe and if the Nightmare Ruby will cause problems for them if it's secret is discovered.


	26. Update! Story Rewritten!

Ok, so I need to post a major update about this fan-fiction. I suggest rereading it, as a lot of changes had happened.

To explain, after learning more about the characters and how the show works (since it's been too long since I last watched it.) I found out I wasn't satisfied with how the chapters turned out, I felt like I made them too like how I portray the characters and not how the show portrays them, there were also some plot-points I felt were going to have major holes in them so I patched them before they could cause problems. So here are a list of the biggest changes I made.

1\. Morg the Martian Grim Reaper has been removed from the story and replaced with Scythe 2.0. My reason is because Morg honestly had no reason to team up with Boogey apart from revenge, but I was having a very hard time trying to get him to work in the story. So I replaced him with Scythe 2.0 so he not only serves as Boogey's weapon, but as someone who chats with him too. So a smaller role but better to use.

2\. Phineas' story. Originally Morg impersonated Phineas to get the Nightmare Ruby and the real Phineas gets accused for the theft. Now that Morg is gone, the story changed so now it's the real Phineas working for Boogey, but he's being blackmailed into doing so. So the intro chapters and his main chapter with Wario changed quite a bit.

3\. Mandy's obsession with ruling the world. In quite a few chapters, Mandy would constantly think about ruling the world, and even talk about how she'll be the future ruler. Mandy never talks about it in the show and it was honestly getting annoying for me, so while she has some thoughts about it, they're all linked to just the Nightmare Ruby and the treasure behind The Thousand-Year Door, otherwise it's just been replaced with her being selfish or ideas on how to get rid of some characters.

4\. Extras. Bad language was removed, this one was just for the sake of being more accurate to the show. I've also tried to make the characters more accurate to their cartoon counterparts, these are smaller changes since I felt I already got them down quite well, but I made a few tweaks to make them more accurate. Finally, the story states it takes place three years after the finale, so the kids are around 11-12 instead of 8-9, this was changed because I wanted to have it set after the show so I can make any changes I need to, but I also kept having it in my head they were teenagers when they're not.

If you haven't read the story before this update was posted then it won't affect you, you'll have already read the updated version. I'm gonna try and get Chapter 4 done as quick as I can, but I can't promise when. But I hope you're looking forward to it.


End file.
